Open Men’s top seeds advance at Ulster Open

The top four seeds in the Open Men’s division advanced to the quarterfinals of the singles portion of the Ulster County Open Tennis Tournament at Forsyth Park.

Top seed Shawn Holzmann, No. 2 seed Ravi Ramaswami, thirdseeded Greg Tellier and No. 4 seed Bill Blake dropped a combined seven games total in their firstround matches.

Holzmann swept Jonathon Wright, 6-0, 6-1, while Ramaswami blanked Paul Larios, 6-0, 6-0. Tellier topped Rains Jordan, 6-2, 6-0, while Blake swept past Jay Han, 6-3, 6-1. In other firstround matches, Tomas Pesko West swept Andrew Catalano, 6-3, 6-3; Finbar Stuart topped William Wright, 6-2, 6-0; Vern Chrisjohn outlasted William Smith, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-1; while Evan Haruta rallied

to beat Bradley Hack, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3.

In Open Women’s play, Melissa Giordano advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Tammy Croote at the SUNY Ulster courts.

In the Men’s 3.5 bracket, No. 1 seed Doug Milford and No. 2 Trent Shorter advanced to the semifinals. Milford breezed past Kerry Ford, 6-0, 6-0, while Shorter rallied past Paul Mushlit, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 10-6 (super tiebreaker). Lawrence Roper, meanwhile, advanced to the semis with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Derek Tompkins.

In Senior Men’s play, Mike Hale advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-0, 7-5 win over Haruta, while David Loewen swept Dewitt Nelson, 6-0, 6-1. Don Guidi also advanced to the quarterfinals, winning by default over Paul SolisCohen.