Men's and Women's Tennis Wrap Up Successful Opening Weekend

Friday, September 22

Philadelphia, Pa.

All Day

Drexel University

Cissie Leary Invitational

Men's and Women's Tennis Wrap Up Successful Opening Weekend

9/24/2017 6:48:00 PM | Women's Tennis

MEN'S DRAWS WOMEN'S DRAWS

PHILADELPHIA – The first weekend of fall competition is in the books and the Drexel men's and women's tennis teams have a number of successes to point to after their play at the Saint Joseph's Invitational and Cissie Leary Invitational.

"This is a great start to our season," head coach Mehdi Rhazali said. "We only had four days to practice and we worked on specific things that we can control. We played smart and we stuck to the plan. This isn't easy to do and I'm proud of how well we managed adversity and momentum shifts. We have a long way to go and this is a solid foundation for the season."

The men completed play at the Saint Joseph's Invitational with a pair of singles flight victories to go along with two doubles flight triumphs. Hamza Laalej won Singles Flight 2 on Sunday with a finals win over Harry Wang of Lehigh. He won a pair of three-set matches on Sunday, taking down Dan Tan of Saint Joseph's 5-7, 7-5, 12-10 in the semifinals before topping Wang, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 10-5.

In Singles Flight 4, Xandy Hammitt knocked out Jimmy Purdy of Villanova, 6-3, 6-0 to advance to the title match. In the finals, he upended Danny Nomura of Villanova, 6-2, 6-3. It was Hammitt's first collegiate singles action. For Laalej, it marked the second consecutive season in which he brought home a SJU Invitational singles title.

In doubles, Sinan Orhon and Bernard Tefel finished off their run to the Flight 1 Doubles championship with an 8-2 win over Tomas Christian and Francesco Mowrey of La Salle. Flight 2 also belonged to the Dragons where Hammitt remained unbeaten as a collegian, winning alongside Balaji Lakshmanan, 8-5 over Jacob Edelchik and Juan Martin-Dyer of Lehigh.

Play at the Cissie Leary Invitational concluded for women's tennis on Sunday when Ryshena Providence lost in the Flight B Singles Consolation finals, 7-5, 6-3. The women's weekend was highlighted by Ghita Benhadi and Kendra Bunch's play in Flight A Doubles, where they advanced to the championship match before seeing their run come to a close.

The Dragons will return to action next weekend in another pair of fall tournaments. The men's team will take part in the Army Invitational in West Point while the women take their turn at the Saint Joseph's Invitational on Hawk Hill.