Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Penn Invitational
Players Mentioned
Men's Tennis Plays Final Day at Penn, Alabama Tournaments
September 28, 2014 | Men's Tennis
Friday Recap | Saturday Recap | Clip of Josh Yablon in Sunday's Flight Final
Josh Yablon made the flight final Sunday at Alabama's Crimson Tide Four in the Fall event and had the chance to knock off an ITA-ranked player, but South Alabama's Daniel Leitner tipped match his way in a 6-3 third set.
"I'm exceptionally pleased with our play this weekend at both the Alabama and Penn tournaments," Princeton's third-year head coach Billy Pate said. "Coach Keckley was particularly pleased with our effort and focus at Penn and we did an outstanding job with the four here in Tuscaloosa. Josh (Yablon) was able to string together a series of high-level matches in making the final of the top flight. The level today was remarkably high from both players. Despite not getting the win, he really showed a lot and has come a long way since last year when he was somewhat hampered after surgery. We also had great performances today from Alex (Day), Tom (Colautti) and Kial (Kaiser) in getting solid wins and finishing the tournament off on a very positive note. Kial made some great adjustments from Friday's loss and rebounded with three wins. Tom continues to win third-set matches and demonstrate resiliency and toughness. And Alex bounced back too after a couple of erratic performances to play solid start to finish today. Overall, I feel this is our most positive fall weekend of competition from the whole team since I've been here. We are playing a lot of matches against high level competition and getting better, but there is also a great deal we need to work on at practice."
Yablon had won three straight-set matches to reach Sunday's final, never allowing more than four games in any of the six sets. He lost a set for the first time against Leitner, with the German senior taking the opening frame 6-4. Yablon responded by winning the second set in a tiebreak before Leitner prevailed.
Also in the top flight, Yablon's sophomore classmate Tom Colautti battled back from Saturday's semifinal loss to Leitner to defeat Dartmouth's Diego Pedraza in three sets in a third-place consolation match, the third of four singles matches this weekend to go the distance with Colautti prevailing in all three. On the two fall tournaments so far, seven of Colautti's eight matches have gone three sets, with Colautti winning six of those.
Alex Day and Kial Kaiser also won consolation matches in Alabama's second and third flights, respectively, with both doing so in straight sets.
While four Tigers were in Alabama, eight were in Philadelphia at the Penn Invitational facing players from Yale in the hidden-dual format on the final day of that event. Princeton's players swept doubles play and split the singles matches, with Luke Gamble, Dan Richardson and Ben Tso winning at the top three spots.
Crimson Tide Four in the Fall
Singles
Flight 1 Final: (115) Daniel Leitner (South Alabama) def. Josh Yablon (Princeton), 6-4, 6-7(1), 6-3
Flight 1 Third-Place Consolation: Tom Colautti (Princeton) def. Diego Pedraza (Dartmouth), 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
Flight 2 Consolation: Alex Day (Princeton) def. Brendon Kempin (Notre Dame), 6-1, 6-3
Flight 3 Consolation Final: Kial Kaiser (Princeton) def. Hayes Brewer (Alabama), 6-2, 6-2
Penn Invitational
Doubles
Luke Gamble/Dan Richardson (Princeton) def. Daniel Faierman/Martin Svenning (Yale), 6-0
Mohamed El Tonbari/Ben Tso (Princeton) def. Matt Saiontz/Ziqi Wang (Yale), 7-6(6)
Michael Katz/Ben Quazzo (Princeton) def. Jason Brown/Zachary Krumholz (Yale), 6-3
Singles
Luke Gamble (Princeton) def. Ziqi Wang (Yale), 6-4, 6-2
Dan Richardson (Princeton) def. Daniel Faierman (Yale), 1-6, 6-4, 6-2
Ben Tso (Princeton) def. Martin Svenning (Yale), 6-2, 6-0
Alex Hagermoser (Yale) def. Mohamed El Tonbari (Princeton), 6-3, 6-2
Photos Photiades (Yale) def. Florin Radu (Princeton), 6-0, 7-6
Zachary Krumholz (Yale) def. Ben Quazzo (Princeton), 7-6(5), 6-1
ITA rankings in parentheses