Oct. 14, 2007

Final Stats | Photo Gallery

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Junior Sandy Franz (Duesseldorf, Germany/Berufskolleg Hilden) posted a 6-1, 6-2 win over South Carolina State's Ivan Milijovecic in the finals of the USC Fall Invitational's A-1 singles flight and sophomore Renzo Airaldi (Lima, Peru/Domingo Faustino Sarmiento) took a hard-fought 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 win over Anderson's Jose Augusto Gaspar in the B-2 singles final to lead the USC Upstate men's tennis team to successful finish on Sunday afternoon at the Sam Daniels Tennis Center.

Franz advanced to the finals after his morning match, against East Tennessee State's Oscar Posada was defaulted, keeping Franz fresh for the afternoon finals. With a solid ground game and a powerful forehand, Franz was able to keep Milijovecic on his toes all day. Franz broke Milijovecic four times during the match.

Airaldi breezed through his morning semifinals match, beating South Carolina State's David Grund, 6-2, 6-3. In the finals, he won the first set, 6-4, breaking Gaspar in the last game of the set. In the second set, Airaldi took a 4-1 lead, but couldn't keep the momentum. Although he had a 5-4 lead and three match points in the set, he fell, 7-5. However, the sophomore rebounded, once again taking a 4-1 lead and splitting the next four matches to win, 6-3.

Franz opened the tournament with a 7-6, 6-1 win over Clemson's Derrick Defazio, but faced some toughest challenges en route to the finals on Saturday, as he downed fifth-seeded Badr Bouabdellah, 7-6, 6-2, to reach the quarterfinals where he faced the tournament's top-seed and 62nd-ranked Roy Sichel of Charlotte. Franz posted an impressive 6-4, 7-5 win. Franz is 2-0 this season against players ranked in the ITA's preseason top 100.

Airaldi started on Friday with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Alabama- Birmingham's Miki Artero and breezed into the quarterfinals on Saturday, taking out Alabama-Birmingham's Adrian Tollestam, 6-0, 6-2. He faced teammate, senior Sebastian Gonzales-Orbegoso (Lima, Peru/Cambridge College) in the quarters, winning in three sets. After Gonzales-Orbegoso won the first set, 6-3, Airaldi settled down to take the final two sets, 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the Sunday's play.

Sophomore Jack Roux (Santiago, Chile/Subercaseaux) fell in the semifinals of the A/B singles flight in a three-set match to Alabama-Birmingham's Jack Emory, 6-3, 6-7 (0), 6-1.

The Spartans will get back in action on Tuesday, as the men head to the qualifying rounds of the ITA Regionals in Charlottesville, Va. Franz has earned a slot in the main draw and will start play at the tournament on Friday.