Oregon’s Akihiro Tanaka and Thomas Laurent fell short in Monday’s qualifying matches of the ITA All-American Championship in Tulsa, Okla.
Tanaka started the tournament for the Ducks in singles play against North Carolina’s Bo Boyden. Tanaka took the first set win but failed to maintain his lead, giving Boyden the final two set wins. Boyden took the match victory with set scores of 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
The loss will place Tanaka in the singles consolation round scheduled for day four of the tournament on Tuesday.
Later in the day, Tanaka joined up with Laurent — the duo’s first time as doubles partners — and launched into the doubles tournament with a quick three-set sweep over Tulsa’s Mitchell Pritchard and Boriss Kamdem.
After moving into the round of 32, their qualifying goals were terminated after falling to Alan Gadjiev and Julian Zlobinsky of Wake Forest in three straight sets of 4-6, 6-3 and 10-4.
The pair will have a chance to redeem themselves in the doubles consolation round on Tuesday.
Laurent, the No. 19 player in the country, will begin his second ITA Championship singles play appearance as he begins tournament play on Thursday in the main draw of competitors.
The Oregon junior will look to make it past the second round of the main draw, as he fell short in last year’s second-round match against Wake Forest’s Skander Mansouri. In addition, Laurent will need to take three singles wins within the tournament to get a spot on Oregon’s top-15 all-time career singles victories list.
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