Liberty University
ITA All-American Championships
Ferreira, Heaven and Wilson Each Win 2 Matches at ITA All-American Championships
10/2/2021 11:33:16 PM | Men's Tennis
The Liberty trio of Goncalo Ferreira, Zion Heaven and Josh Wilson won two pre-qualifying matches each during the opening day of the ITA All-American Championships.
All three players picked up victories in the round of 256 and round of 128 on Saturday at the prestigious event, held at Tulsa’s Michael D. Case Tennis Center and at the Case Tennis Center at LaFortune Park. The Liberty players will compete in another day of pre-qualifying matches, Sunday.
Key Stats & Notes
• Ferreira opened his tournament with a three-set win (6-7 (2), 6-3, 1-0 (10-4)) over Santa Clara’s Neuhaus. The Liberty sophomore defeated UNLV’s Milos Dabic in a second round match, 7-6 (1), 6-1.
• Ferreira will meet Andrew Lutschaunig of Ohio State in the third round of pre-qualifying, Sunday at noon Eastern.
• Heaven took down Southern Miss’ Antoine Audrain in three sets, 4-6, 6-1, 1-0 (10-5) in his first round match at LaPortune Park. The win was his first career fall victory as a Flame.
• Heaven advanced to face Hawaii’s Simao Alves on Saturday evening. The Liberty junior prevailed 6-4, 6-2. Heaven will take on Carlos Vicente of Tennessee Tech, tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. Eastern.
• Wilson dominated his first match of the day on Saturday afternoon, besting Nebraska’s Patrick Cacciatore 6-0, 6-3. Wilson’s second match against Hawaii’s Kilian Maitre featured tiebreaker in both the first and second sets, setting up a third set 10-point tiebreaker. The Liberty junior won the tiebreaker 10-5 and the match, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (9), 1-0 (10-5).
• Wilson’s third round opponent is Udayan Bhakar of St. John’s. The competitors will square off tomorrow at 1 p.m. Eastern.
• Deji Thomas-Smith, Thando Longwe-Smit and Omar El Kadi dropped their respective first round singles matches. Longwe-Smit’s match lasted three sets, as he fell narrowly to DePaul’s Luuk Wassenaar, 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-8). All three competitors will play consolation matches, Sunday.
• The Flames’ Rafael Marques Da Silva did not compete on Saturday. He will play his first qualifying match on Monday and will also take part in doubles qualifying with Deji Thomas-Smith as well on that day.
Up Next
The Flames will be back in action on Sunday for day two of pre-qualifying. Additionally, there will be consolation pre-qualifying matches.
Remaining Schedule
Oct. 3
Pre-Qualifying
Oct. 4-5
Qualifying
Oct. 6-10
Main Draw
