MALIBU, Calif. – Thursday on day one of the Oracle ITA Masters, Longwood senior Amadeo Blasco stood as a David among Goliaths. And even though the marathon first day of the prestigious college invitational didn't finish with a storybook ending, Longwood's ace learned much along the way.
 
In the first-ever appearance by a Longwood tennis player in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's most prestigious fall invitational, Blasco paired with fellow Big South standout Alisa Soloveva for a first-round win in mixed doubles before falling in his first singles bout of the tournament and ending the day with a mixed doubles defeat against a pair of high-major foes.
 
Blasco and Soloveva, who were selected by the Big South Conference to attend the tournament at Pepperdine University, put the conference on the map early with a 6-4 win over Pacific seaboard duo of UC Santa Barbara's Joseph Guillin and Hawaii's Petra Melounova in the opening round of the tournament's mixed doubles bracket. That victory propelled the Big South duo into the second round where they faced Baylor's Sven Lah and Virginia's Natasha Subhash and fell to that high-major tandem 6-2.
 
Hours later Blasco squared off against 28th-ranked and reigning Big West Player of the Year Joseph Guillin of UC Santa Barbara but fell 6-3, 6-2.
 
"Today I learned a lot from playing my matches, especially in the singles playing someone at this level. He's ranked 28^th in the country for a reason," said Blasco, whose loss snapped a 4-0 winning streak to his fall season. "I had my chances, and I let some of them slip because of my decisions at the moment, my emotions and letting my nerves influence my shot decisions.
 
"I understand that to win at this level, I must suffer a lot physically and mentally, and today that just took me by surprise. However, I learned there's joy in suffering as well when the strategy starts working. My opponent capitalized on his opportunities today more than me, and that's' the reason he won with such a hard score. He was more intelligent than me at key moments and made better decisions. Tomorrow I'll apply what I learned from today, and I'll try my best to change the outcome of the match and grow more."
 
Blasco is one of 32 male invitees to the tournament, which fields the top men's and women's players from all NCAA Division I conferences around the country. Fifteen of those players in the men's bracket earned national rankings in the ITA's final men's singles poll of 2018-19, including the 28th-ranked Guillin and six others who last year finished ranked among the nation's top 30 players.
 
As part of that elite field, Blasco joined Soloveva in representing the Big South against a field that is comprised of players from nearly every Division I conference in the nation. He follows in the footsteps of the Big South's 2018 men's invitee Henry Patten of UNC Asheville, who went on to earn Big South Player of the Year honors in 2019.
 
"Amadeo's results showed he was not ready for a level like this, but he needed to see it to realize what he needs to do to get there," said Longwood head Jhonnatan Medina Alvarez. "These guys, they're good players and they run and they make balls. There was a lack of understanding how to play here, and I told him that was going to happen and that he was going to need to learn. The only way for him to see that difference was to experience it, and I want him to be able to learn from what happened today. He can develop and be better."
 
Day two of the tournament will pit Blasco against another top-40 foe in San Diego's Gui Osorio, the two-time reigning West Coast Conference Player of the Year and an invitee to the 2018 and 2019 NCAA Championship tournaments. That backdraw match up will begin during the morning session with time of first serve to be announced.
 
2019 Oracle ITA Masters
Sept. 26, 2019 (Day One)
Malibu, Calif. (Malibu Racquet Club/Pepperdine University)
 
Mixed Doubles
First Round (MRC): Amadeo Blasco (LWU)/Alisa Soloveva (WIN) def. Joseph Guillin (UCSB)/Petra Melounova (HAW) 6-4
Second Round (PU): Sven Lah (BAY)/Natasha Subhash (UVA) def. Amadeo Blasco (LWU)/Alisa Soloveva (WIN) 6-2
 
Men's Singles
First Round (PU): Joseph Guillin (UCSB) def. Amadeo Blasco (LWU) 6-3, 6-2
 
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