Oct. 24, 2003
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- The second day of competition brought some disappointment for the Northwestern men's tennis team at the ITA Midwest Championships on the Michigan State campus.
Ahmed Wahla (Lahore, Pakistan/Lahore American School), who easily won his first match to get to today's round of 32, gave up a 7-6 (5), 6-3 decision to DePaul's Robert Kotroczo and consequently will not get a bid to the main singles draw.
Wildcat ninth-seed Matt Christian (Troy, Mich./Brother Rice) had a closer match, but in the end he also lost, falling to Michigan's Ryan Heller 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
"Matt and Ryan had a great match, probably the best of the qualifiers," said head coach Paul Torricelli, noting that Christian was down 3-0 in the second set but came back to force a decisive third game.
"The two have been rivals since junior tennis," Torricelli added.
NU will compete in the main singles and doubles draws tomorrow starting at 7 a.m. Central time.