The nation’s No. 1 ranked duo of Ken Skupski and Mark Growcott failed to get past the quarter-finals last weekend after falling to Andreas Slijestram and Marco Born of Middle Tennessee, 8-6 at the Polo Ralph Lauren ITA All-American Championships.
Skupksi and Growcott were coming off a win over No. 24 Colin Purcel and Strahinja Bobusic of Georgia, 8-5 earlier in the day.
“Ken and Mark got a good win this morning over a strong team, but this afternoon it came down to the wire,” associate coach Mark Booras said after the match. “They just couldn’t pull it out. We have a good idea of what we need to work on from here.”
Skupski and Growcott began the tournament with a win over Eric Molnar and Chad Tsuda of Colorado, 8-5 to advance the second round.
LSU’s other doubles team of Colt Gaston and Danny Bryan also lost, falling to Brett Joelson and Bryan Wooten of Texas A&M, 8-6.
On Saturday, Skupski lost in the quarterfinals of singles consolation to Oklahoma’s Marek Velicka, 6-2, 6-4. Velicka ranks No. 35 in the nation.
“Velicka played well,” Booras said. “Ken couldn’t take advantage of his opportunities.”
To begin the tournament Thursday, Skupski fell to Arizona’s Roger Montalonga, 6-4, 6-0, while Growcott could not pull out a victory, losing to No. 7 Arnaud Lecloerec, 6-3, 7-6 (3), 6-4.
“Ken got off to a rough start and his opponent took advantage,” Booras said. “Mark played really well this morning, but Lecloerec was a strong player and was able to edge him out.”
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