Oct. 29, 1999

FORT WORTH, Texas - - Borut Martincevic and Ryan Shupe both won their third round matches Friday and will advance to the round of 16 Saturday at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Region VI Championships on the Texas Christian University campus in Fort Worth.

Much is at stake in the tournament, which is being hosted by TCU for the 15th consecutive year. The winner and finalist in the singles bracket will receive automatic bids to the ITA Rolex Indoor National Championships.

Martincevic came into the tournament as the No. 6 seed. He defeated unseeded Magnus Kullenberg of Arkansas in straight sets, 6-4 6-1 in their match Friday morning. He will face 12th seed Trace Fielding of TCU tomorrow morning at 9:00. Shupe, the No. 14 seed, beat the 17th seeded Juan Aranboro of Texas A&M in straight sets, 6-1, 6-0. He will face 5th seeded Oscar Johansson of Arkansas tomorrow at 9 a.m.

In doubles play the Tech men have two teams alive. Clay Estes and Marino Baghdati upset the No. 8 seed duo of John Deaton and Hendrik Tofft from Arkansas 6-1, 6-4 while Shupe and Ryan Davies beat Omar Ramez and Rafeal Reyes of Rice 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the round of 16 tomorrow. Tech's third doubles team, Martincevic and Patricio Espinosa, failed to advance after falling to Louisiana-Lafayette's Eduardo Gordilho and Michal Jordan by a score of 6-3, 6-2.

As in the singles competition, the winner and finalist of the doubles competition will receive automatic bids to the ITA Rolex National Indoor Championships. --TTU--