By: Generated by uReport
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The opening round of the 2026 GSAC Men’s Tennis Championship produced two very different results Thursday at Paseo Racquet Center, with No. 3 seed Stanton moving on with a brisk 4-0 win over No. 6 Northern New Mexico and No. 5 OUAZ surviving a back-and-forth 4-3 match against No. 4 Hope International.
Stanton’s path to the semifinals was direct from the start. The doubles point was effectively settled almost as soon as play began. Oleksandr Kolesnychenko and Lemiel Taira rolled to a 6-0 victory at No. 1 doubles, and Egor Pishchelev and Matthias Bigot matched that score at No. 2. With the No. 3 doubles position decided by default, Stanton carried a 1-0 lead into singles and never gave Northern New Mexico an opening.
That control only tightened in singles. Defaults at No. 5 and No. 6 singles quickly pushed the score to 3-0, leaving Stanton one point from the clinch. Pishchelev supplied it in emphatic fashion at No. 2 singles, defeating Ja’Kwon Hill 6-0, 6-0 for the match’s final completed result. Several other singles courts were still in their early stages when play was stopped, but Stanton had already done more than enough to book a semifinal meeting with No. 2 seed Lewis-Clark State at 10 a.m. PT on Friday.
The second match unfolded much differently. Hope International claimed the doubles point, but only after a tight finish on the top court. Reid Lizardo and Sebastien Perez opened with a 6-2 win at No. 2 doubles, OUAZ answered with a 6-4 decision at No. 3, and the point came down to No. 1, where Karan Srivastava and Thomas Folsom edged Arvid Lindblad and Filip Novacek 7-6 (5). That tiebreak gave Hope International a 1-0 advantage and early control of the match.
Singles brought repeated swings. OUAZ drew level at 1-1 when Lindblad beat Srivastava 6-1, 6-3 at No. 1, but Hope International responded with two strong wins that put the Royals on the brink of advancing. Lizardo handled No. 2 singles 6-1, 6-4, then Perez added a 6-2, 7-5 victory at No. 5 for a 3-1 team lead. From there, OUAZ needed three straight points and got them through a series of comebacks.
Fabian Wetter started the turnaround at No. 3 singles after dropping the first set, defeating Folsom 4-6, 6-2, 6-2. Kasper Olofsson followed a similar script at No. 4, recovering from a 2-6 opening set against Kaito Henderson to win 6-3, 6-1 and tie the match at 3-3. The deciding point came at No. 6 singles, where Max Lopez Gonzalez also lost the first set before settling in against Mohamed ElSheikh. Lopez Gonzalez closed out a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win, sealing OUAZ’s comeback and a semifinal berth against top-seeded Arizona Christian, also scheduled for 10 a.m. PT Friday.