Photo by: Justin Edmonds
It was just another weekend of breaking records for DU men’s tennis player Adam Holmstrom as he became the first Denver singles player to advance to the ITA National Indoor semifinals this past weekend in Columbus, Ohio.
He set a record before play even started, as he became the first DU player to advance to singles and doubles play at the ITA tournament in program history.
It was his first time at the indoors, and I know he was as excited, if not more, to be there for doubles with his partner for the past four years, Niklas Persson,” said Head Coach Danny Westerman.
In the opening round of 32 No. 12 Holmstrom upset No. 4 Travis Helgason of Georgia 7-5, 6-3 to advance to play No. 48 Richard Wire of Stanford. It was quite an impressive win for Holmstrom, because Helgason captured the singles title at the Polo Ralph Lauren/ITA Men’s All-American earlier this season.
In the opening round of 16 in doubles play No. 23 Holmstrom and senior Niklas Persson defeated Eric Rubbens and Blake Meister of UC San Diego 8-4 to advance to play USC’s No. 21 Robert Farah and Kaes Van’t Hof.
The DU tandem defeated the USC pair earlier this season at the ITA men’s All-American.
Holmstrom, who qualified for singles play as an at-large, continued his run in the second round as he defeated Wire 6-1 and 7-6(1) to advance to play Oklahoma State’s Oleksandr Nedovyesov in the quarterfinals. Holmstrom showed why he is one of the top players in the country as he defeated Nedovyesov 6-4 and 7-6 and advance to play No. 9 Ryan Rowe of Illinois in the semifinal’s.
Doubles’ play didn’t prove to be as successful for the Pioneers as Holmstrom and Persson fell in the second round to the USC pair 8-6.
The run for Holmstrom in singles’ play also ended as he fell to Rowe in the semifinal’s 7-6(7) and 6-3.
The senior is now 11-4 on the season and will now have a nice long break before returning to play Jan. 25 at the Meadow Creek Tennis Club against Air Force.
“The sky really is the limit for him. There are so many good players in college tennis and the depth is getting better every year, so no one can expect to win every match. But if he is played his best tennis he has a good chance to beat anyone in the country,” said Westerman.
