Complete Results

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – University of South Alabama seniors Romain Bocaert (Lille, France) and Christian Kuehne (Morbach, Germany) each won their respective flights Sunday on the final day of the Southern Miss Fall Invitational.

Bocaert claimed the ‘A’ draw with two victories today while Kuehne won the ‘C’ draw with two straight-sets triumphs. Both were top seeds of each bracket. The Jags also had a doubles team reach the ‘B’ draw finals.

“Our goals were to win all three draws and we won two so I’m happy about that,” USA head coach Nick Brochu said. "Not only did we get a couple of wins, but we got to a couple of semis too. Our guys were in the last matches on Sunday which is always a good thing. We were hoping to be a little more dominant but at least we won two out of three draws.”

Bocaert, who dropped one set all weekend, edged Damian Despetovski of Nicholls State 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3) in the semifinals before sweeping Thomas Rizk of William Carey 6-4, 7-5 to claim the title.

Kuehne lost just six games en route to the championship, defeating Alex Doleac of Southern Miss 6-2, 6-2 and Palash Tiwari of Nicholls State 6-3, 6-1.

“I really liked their attitude,” Brochu said of USA’s two flight winners. “They played very well. They were aggressive when they had to be and conservative when they had to be—that’s pretty much why they had some good matches. Romain pulled out a really good match in the semifinal, winning in a tiebreaker in the third set and kept his composure. Christian did what he had to do. He controlled the pace of the game and came to the net in key situations. I’m happy that these two guys got in a lot of wins going into next weekend.”

In results from the ‘B’ draw, both South Alabama participants were eliminated in the semifinals. Senior Dauw Kruger (Pretoria, South Africa) fell 6-3, 6-2 to Paulo Alvarado of Southern Miss while freshman Daniel Leitner (Niederfischbach, Germany) lost 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4) to Ricky Keppler of William Carey.

The Jaguars picked up two wins in consolation play. Junior Alex Bernard (Soisy Sur Seine, France) defeated Marton Horvath of Lamar 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) and freshman Sebastian Kirmse (Lauffen, Germany) topped Hunter Box of Holmes Community College 6-3, 6-3.

Kruger and freshman Blake Gregor (Griffith, New South Wales, Australia) advanced to the ‘B’ doubles draw finals with an 8-4 win over Palash Tiwari and Siddarth Sivakumar of Nicholls State, but fell in the finals 8-4 to Alvarado and Michael Elortegui of Southern Miss.

Bocaert and Hall move on to the ITA All-America Championships next weekend in Tulsa, Okla. The Jaguars will also send a contingent to Florida State for a tournament to be held Friday-Sunday.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com.  Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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