ROCK HILL, S.C. — Junior Timéo Puech won his quarterfinal singles match on day one of the 2024 Big South Men's Individual Tennis Championship to lead the Longwood men's tennis team at Rock Hill Tennis Center on Friday.
Fifth-seeded Puech dropped the opening set of his round of 16 match with No. 14 Alexandre Bergeron of Gardner-Webb, 3-6, but rebounded to win the next two, 6-2 and 6-2, respectively. Puech moves on to play No. 4 Numa Lemieux-Monette in the quarterfinals at 10:30 a.m., on Saturday.
The tournament's top seed Eduardo Dias of Gardner-Webb defeated No. 16 Alejandro Uribe, 6-2, 6-0. Uribe next plays No. 9 Tom Saporta from Radford at noon in the consolation draw.
Longwood's Mauricio Gonzalez Paiva, the No. 13 seed, fell, 7-5, 7-6 (4), to second-seeded Freddy Murray of UNC Asheville. Gonzalez Paiva next plays 10th-seeded Johan Van Wijk from Gardner-Webb, also at noon.
The doubles pair of Petar Belosevic and Marko Mrdak, the tournament's eighth seed, lost, 8-5, to top-ranked Dias and Lemieux-Monette. The Lancers' pair will now face the fifth-seeded duo from UNC Asheville.
The inaugural Big South individual championship serves as a qualifier for the ITA Conference Masters Championships. The main draw singles and doubles champions will earn automatic entry into the event set for Nov. 7-10 in Rome, Ga.
