Senior Valentin Vacherot lost in the semifinals of the Oracle ITA National Championships to No. 4 Yuya Ito of the University of Texas in a tight three-set match 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 on Saturday at The Tennis Club in Newport Beach, California.
Earlier in the week, Vacherot was the first Aggie to reach the second round of the tournament, with a quick win over No. 41 Charlie Broom of Dartmouth and a win over SEC opponent No. 17 Adam Welton of Tennesse.
Vacherot earned a pair of ranked wins Friday, including his first career top 10 victory, which allowed him to play in the semifinal round on Saturday. Earlier in the day, Vacherot outlasted No. 44 Svan Lah of Baylor to later face and defeat, No. 8 Daniel Cukierman of the University of Southern California. Vacherot’s win against Cukierman was the highest-ranked win of his college career.
A&M was the only SEC team to qualify three student-athletes to the final tournament of the fall and one of five teams nationally.
Along with Vacherot, the Aggies sent juniors Carlos Aguilar and Hady Habib to compete in the singles play tournament.
No. 13 Aguilar lost in the first round to No. 9 Jack Lin of Columbia University. Aguilar moved into the consolation round, defeating University of Mississippi’s Tim Sandkaulen in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, but losing in the second round to No. 23 Alex Brown of Illinois 7-6(5), 6-1.
No. 16 Habib was the first Aggie to reach the third round, making quick work of No. 112 Rrezart Cungu of Wake Forest 6-1, 6-4 in the first round of the afternoon set. Habib worked his way through the second round and the round of 16, facing Stefan Dostanic of USC and Joseph Guillin of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Habib lost in the quarterfinals 7-6(5), 6-3 against Notre Dame’s Richard Ciamarra.
The Aggies will continue their fall tournament campaigns with the Austin Future tournament at the Texas Tennis Center Nov. 17-24.