LAKELAND, Fla. – Top-seed Shaheed Alam of Keiser University and the Savannah College of Art & Design doubles pair of Danil Ozernoy and David Lopez Cruz captured the ITA NAIA Florida Regional Championship Men's Tennis singles and doubles titles on Saturday.
After he defeated Keiser teammate Didrik Liljekvist (7-5, 6-2) in the semifinal, Alam went on to defeat No. 3 seed Ozernoy of SCAD by a 6-3, 6-0 score.
The SCAD tandem of Ozernoy/Lopez Cruz worked hard for their doubles title. Ozernoy/Lopez Cruz prevailed over Mark Griffin/Alejandro Orihuela of Southeastern University in the semifinal, 9-8 (7-0). The SCAD double had to fight even hard in the doubles championship against Southeastern University's Piero Fernandez/Diego Menendez Viina in the tiebreaker. Fernandez/Menendez Vina won the opening set 7-6 (7-5) before Ozernoy/Lopez Cruz forced the tiebreaker with a 6-3 second set win. Ozernoy/Lopez Cruz grabbed the title with a 10-5 tiebreaker final.
On the women's side of the Regional, Keiser University has both singles participants and doubles teams in the Championship matches. Those matchups will be played back on Keiser's home court at a time to be determined.
Women's singles championship matchup of No. 1 seed Violet Apisah, who defeated Eloise de Mooij also of Keiser (6-0, 6-0) in the semis, will face No. 2 seed and teammate Destinee Martins, who prevailed over Keiser's Cato Tangkau (1-6, 6-1, 6-3) in her semifinal meeting.
No. 1 doubles Apisah/Martins made it past No. 4 Carlotta Nonnis Marzano/Alessia Ciampi by an 8-3 final in the semis. The pair will meet teammates No. 2 seed de Mooij/Vanja Vivadnovic, who defeated teammates Yeva Kononvych/Tangkau by an 8-2 score.
