Rozenvasser takes fourth in national tennis tournament

On Thursday, first-year Carnegie Mellon men’s tennis player Michael Rozenvasser competed in the quarterfinals of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Oracle Cup in Arizona. Rozenvasser has had an impressive start to his rookie season, and he qualified for the national tournament by winning the ITA Southeast Regional tournament on Oct. 3.

For Rozenvasser’s quarterfinals match, he had to face off against the number one seed in the tournament, a senior from Skidmore College. This challenge didn’t deter Rozenvasser’s focus at all though, and he played a controlled, clean game to take down his opponent in two quick sets, 6–2, 6–2 and earned himself a ticket to the national tournament semifinal round.

The following day, Rozenvasser stepped onto the hot Arizona court for another intense match. The young rookie was matched up against another senior in this round, this time from Emory University. Rozenvasser started slow, making a few mistakes in the first set and eventually falling 6–2. This didn’t keep Rozenvasser from pushing back, however. He gathered himself in between sets and came out strong in the second, jumping out to a quick 4–1 lead. The pressure must have started to mount on Rozenvasser, or perhaps it was fatigue, but he began to lose the lead that he had worked so hard to achieve in the first half of the set. Rozenvasser tried his best to stay in the game but his experienced senior opponent would not let go of his grip on the game. Rozenvasser dropped the next five games and lost the match with a final score of 6–4 for the set.

That wasn’t the end of the tournament for Rozenvasser, however. He still had to play the third place match against last year’s fourth place winner at the same tournament. Rozenvasser’s inexperience once again proved to be a key factor in the game as he was defeated 6–2, 6–3. Rozenvasser should be proud of his performance, though. He was the only Tartan player to be invited to this tournament, and competed as a first-year against a field of mostly seniors. Even though he didn’t make it past the semifinals, Rozenvasser can look back at this tournament and know he improved as a player and competed among the best at a national level. This was the last competition of the year for Rozenvasser and the Tartan men’s tennis team, but they’ll pick back up in February for more action on the court.