Contributed/ETSU Athletics

ETSU’s men’s tennis team earned national attention last week as Oscar Martinez and Martin Vergara posted a strong performance at the ITA Conference Masters Championships in San Diego. The Buccaneer duo finished as runners-up in the doubles bracket, securing a place in the next ITA Doubles Championship in Orlando.

Martinez opened the week in singles play, defeating Rider’s Matteus Frobert Dahlin in the first round. The junior from La Guaira, Venezuela, then pushed UCLA’s Emon van Loben Sels, the tournament’s No. 3 seed, to three sets, taking the opener before falling 6-4, 6-4. Martinez closed out the fall with an impressive 17-2 singles record.

In doubles, Martinez and Vergara, the No. 4 seed, received a bye into the round of 16. They advanced with wins over Illinois State and Old Dominion before claiming a semifinal victory against Petro Kuzmenok and Santiago Navarro, 6-2, 7-5. The pair came up short in Sunday’s championship match, falling 6-1, 6-4.

Vergara, a redshirt sophomore from Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, brings extensive international experience to ETSU. Before joining the Bucs, he competed at Miami and Arizona State and appeared in the Davis Cup for Paraguay. His junior career included 16 tournament titles and appearances at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon junior championships.

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