Sunday, September 22, 2013

Ex-Sac State star advances in Napa qualifying

   Wild card Kiryl Harbatsiuk of Sacramento defeated seventh-seeded Chris Wettengel of Las Vegas 7-6 (4), 6-4 Sunday to reach the final round of qualifying in the $50,000 Napa Valley Challenger at the Napa Valley Country Club.
   Harbatsiuk, a 25-year-old native of Minsk, Belarus, was named the Big Sky Conference MVP for three consecutive years (2009-11) at Sacramento State. He will play third-seeded Jesse Witten, 30, of Naples, Fla., on Monday.
   Witten, who reached the third round of the 2009 U.S. Open as a qualifier, beat Dane Webb, a junior at the University of Oklahoma from Richardson, Texas, 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-1.
   The top three seeds in the main draw -- Americans Denis Kudla, Tim Smyczek and Rhyne Williams, respectively -- will play on Monday in the first round. Williams will face wild card Collin Altamirano, 17, of Elk Grove in the Sacramento area.
   Altamirano won the USTA Boys 18 National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich., last month to earn an automatic wild card at the U.S. Open in the main draw of men's singles. He lost to 22nd-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany in the first round but reached the boys singles quarterfinals.
   Harbatsiuk is 1-0 against Witten, winning 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the final round of qualifying for the 2010 Tiburon Challenger. Harbatsiuk then lost to second-seeded Donald Young of Atlanta 6-1, 6-0 in the first round of the main draw.
   Two other Northern California wild cards, Anthony Tsodikov and Matt Seeberger, lost in the second round of qualifying in the Napa Valley Challenger.
   Fifth-seeded Alex Blumenberg of Brazil edged Tsodikov, a Stanford sophomore from San Francisco, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
   Sixth-seeded Greg Ouellette of Ormond Beach, Fla., held off Seeberger, an ex-UC Santa Cruz star, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3. Seeberger won a record eight NCAA Division III titles (two team, three singles and three doubles).
   Ouellette, a former All-American at the University of Florida, will play Mico Santiago of Corvallis, Ore. Santiago, 19, knocked off top seed Daniel Smethurst of Great Britain 7-5, 6-1.
   Here are links to the singles, doubles and qualifying draws and Monday's schedule:
   http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/singles_draw287.PDF
   http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/doubles_draw288.PDF
   http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/qualifying_draw285.PDF
   http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/schedule288.PDF

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