NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Privateers had a busy week that included three men's student-athletes in the main draw of singles play at the ITA Regionals that took place in Baton Rouge (women) and Tuscaloosa (men).
Max Heinzel and
Karim Al-Amin completed the road to qualifying for the main draw with three wins each.
Marcel Volz had already been slotted in the main draw giving the Privateers three entrants by the Round of 64. Once there, Al-Amin won his first-round match in the main draw and advanced to the second round.
Karim began his road by beating Antonio Sasso (Nicholls) 6-3, 6-1. He posted another demonstrative win in the second qualifying round, toping Javier Montoya (South Alabama) 6-1, 6-3. In his last qualifying round, Al-Amin had to rally from down a set to win against Xavier Sarda Marti (Jacksonville State) 1-6, 7-6 (4), 10-8.
Once in the main draw, Al-Amin had a pair of grueling matches. He outlasted Olimjon Nabiev (Southern Miss) in a three-set battle before succumbing to 3-seed, Filip Planinsek (Alabama). Al-Amin took a first set tiebreak but Planinsek turned the tables with a late service break in the second set that helped vault him to victory in the Round of 32.
Heinzel battled through the qualifying draw with wins against Sandeep Mohandoss (Samford), Alejo Ferrer Chueca (Louisiana) and Noah Malige (UAB). His win in the second round came against the 8-seed in Ferrer Chueca. Heinzel won a third set tiebreak 10-7.
In the main draw, Heinzel was defeated by Mohamed Ali Bellalouna (Samford). Bellalouna was ranked in the Top 60 in the world in the under-18 age group prior to coming to Samford. He also made the third round of Wimbledon Junior Championships.
Heinzel and
Marcel Volz earned a win in the doubles draw when they topped Chase Parker and Parker Bradbary (UAB) 8-6. They were defeated by the 2-seed tandem of Lukas Engelhardt and Nikola Slavic (Ole Miss).
Also,
Espen Lagarde had two wins in the qualifying draw against Seth Richey (Mississippi State) and Matei Palcau (Jacksonville State). The latter withdrew due to injury.
Didi Bredberg Canizares and
Raluca Puscas advanced to the second round of the doubles draw. They engineered an 8-4 victory against Valeriia Avdeeva and Chiara Desia Dabarno of Troy. The Privateer tandem was defeated by Rachel Krzyzak and Lillian Gabrielsen (Ole Miss).
In singles, Canizares took Anna Parkhomenko (Alabama) to three sets. Parkhomenko was part of a doubles tandem that recorded three wins against Top 70 opponents and had 30 total wins between doubles and singles in 2021-22.
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