Day One Results

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The Fairleigh Dickinson men's tennis team completed the first day of competition at the Columbia Classic on Friday highlighted by seniors Yuri Gricheno (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Colegio Amorim) and Peter Skvarka (Banska Bystrica, Slovakia/Gymnazium J.G. Tajovskeho) qualifying for the finals of Flight B doubles.

The Gricheno/Skvarka pairing began the day by taking down Fairfield's Cam Amyot and Bjorn Merinder, 8-4, in the quarterfinals. In the semis, the duo was able to outlast NJIT's Jack Felich and Holger Norregaard, 8-6. Gricheno and Skvarka will battle Fraser Croad and Andres Alban of NJIT on Sunday for the championship.

In singles, Skvarka is still in contention as well after his Flight C singles victory over Eric Jacobs of Columbia, 7-5, 6-2, to qualify for tomorrow's quarterfinals.  

In Flight A singles, sophomore Arvis Berzins (Adazi, Latvia/Riga Language School) was leading Valentin Mihai of St. John's, 6-2, when Mihai was forced to retire. Berzins will take on Cornell's Sam Fleck in the quarterfinals tomorrow.

Berzins teamed up with senior Ibrahim Shams (Cairo, Egypt/Manor House) in Flight A doubles, beating Monmouth's Freddy Marcinkowski and Ramy Bekheit, 8-3. FDU's top pairing fell short in the quarterfinals, however, 8-2 at the hands of Sam Fleck and Quoc-Daniel Nguyen of Cornell. 

The Knights will continue to compete in the Columbia Classic on Saturday.