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Butler Tandem Falls in ITA All-American
Oct. 9, 2003 Butler's Kevin and Brandon Gill fell to Jeff Groslimond and Chris Westerhof of Florida State, 8-5, Thursday in the first round of the main draw at the ITA Men's All-American Championships in Chattanooga, Tenn. The Bulldog duo had earned a spot in the 32-team main draw by winning two qualifying matches earlier in the week. The brothers, ranked No. 46 in the ITA preseason rankings, will now face the loser of a match between third-seeded Zoltan Csanadi and Izak van der Merwe of Old Dominion and Illinois' Chris Martin and Evan Zeder in the consolation bracket. That match was delayed due to rain Thursday. The Gills' match is scheduled to be played Friday at 1 p.m. It wasn't immediately known if that time would be pushed back due to many of Thursday's matches not being completed. On Tuesday, the Gills defeated Zach Dailey and Lewis Smith of SEC power Vanderbilt, 8-4. Kevin, a senior, and Brandon, a junior, then defeated South Florida's Paco Antelo and Karim Benmansour, 8-6, Wednesday. The Icy Hot/ITA Men's All-American Championships include six days of qualifying matches leading up to the Oct. 9-12 64-player, 32-doubles team main draw. 256-singles player and 128-doubles team prequalifying tournaments were played October 3-6, which fed into 64-player and 32-doubles team qualifying tournaments October 7-8. The combined singles tournament fields can run over 350 players and a player who begins in prequalifying must win seven matches just to reach the main draw. The Icy Hot/ITA Men's All-American Championship, the largest single tournament in the country, offers the first national singles and doubles titles of the season, and are followed by the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships in November and the the season-ending NCAA Championships in May. |
