Griz exceed expectations in fall tourney opener

Friday, September 22

USAF Academy, Colo.

All Day

Montana

Bedford Cup

9/24/2023 4:29:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Complete Results Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team came out of the gates firing in its first tournament of the fall season this weekend, exceeding head coach Jason Brown's expectations at the Bedford Cup in the Mountains held at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Montana had players claim titles and advance to semifinal rounds in both singles and doubles among a strong field in Colorado Springs, with teams from Boise State, BYU, Denver, New Mexico State, UNLV, Utah State, Weber State, and Montana State all represented.

Junior Guillermo Martin was Montana's biggest star of the weekend, winning the Eagle singles draw and beating the No. 1 seed team from BYU en route to a main draw doubles semifinal appearance with his partner Fernando Perez.

Sophomore Tom Bittner made the semifinal round in his singles draw and won a title in the West doubles draw with his partner, Grizzly newcomer Chris Zhang, to highlight Montana's awards haul.

"Culturally, competitively, the way they represented themselves professionally across the board, I couldn't have asked for anything better. They've really turned into a Grizzly tennis team, with the emphasis on team," said Brown.

"Our doubles were outstanding, and I can't say enough good things about how these guys represented Montana this weekend."

Gallery: (9-24-2023) MTEN: at Bedford Cup (9.24.230

After getting a bye in the round of 16 to start the tourney, Martin advanced out of the quarterfinal of the Eagle singles draw when Adrian Daniel of Montana State retired injured after the two split sets, 3-6, 6-0.

The Grizzly Spaniard got another win with an unblemished second set over New Mexico State's Gustavo Campos 6-3, 6-0, to move on to the championship.

In a gut-check title match, Martin bounced back from a first-set loss to defeat Matteo Savio of Weber State in a marathon third, winning 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 to take home his first career fall tournament title.

In doubles, Martin and Perez were giant killers, knocking off the Navarro/Baily pair from UNLV 7-5 in the round of 32 and the No. 1 seed Fuch/Thayne pair from BYU 7-5. They kept up the good form in the quarterfinal, beating the Haddouch/Burger team from Boise State 6-1, before eventually falling to the eventual champion Atherton/Ornberg pair from UNLV in a narrow 7-5 loss.

"Guillermo was the MVP of the weekend. He was outstanding and played really intelligent tennis. He was kind of limited due to some injuries but fought through it and managed his game. Even without his big weapons, he put in a stellar performance," Brown added.

Bittner advanced to the semifinal of the Raptor singles draw with two opening-round wins. The sophomore started with a strong 6-3, 6-2, win over Ita Feigin from New Mexico State in the round of 16 to advance to the quarterfinal.

He then picked up another straight-set win (6-3, 6-3) over Jack Brown from the home-team Air Force Falcons before falling to another Falcon in the semifinal, going down 1-6, 4-6 to Air Force's AJ Moore.

In doubles, Bittner and Zhang won a tiebreaker in the quarterfinal to beat Montana State's Relic/Necz pair 7-6 (5) in the West draw. The two got another Big Sky win in the semifinal over Weber State's Kruger/Zulch 6-2 pair to advance to the championship.

In the title match, they dispatched Air Force's Kersten/Vroman pair 6-4 to claim the second Grizzly title of the weekend.

Even more impressive is that Bittner and Zhang were playing their first-ever tournament together and entered the weekend as Montana's No. 3 partnership. They proceeded to knock off each team's No. 1 pair on their way to clinching the championship.

Montana now prepares to do a 180 and return to Colorado Springs for the annual ITA Mountain Regional Tourney, also hosted by Air Force. The Mountain Regional starts on Thursday, Sept. 28, and runs through Sunday, Oct. 1.

"I think this weekend really gave our guys confidence heading into the regional. It's a tough place to play. It's high altitude, it can be windy, and now we're just settled in, and that negates some of the road factor," said Brown.

"I think the teams that came to the Bedford Cup will have a huge advantage over teams that didn't, but we'll still have to overachieve. The regional tournament is immensely tough, but if we compete like this, I'll be super excited to bring them right back down."