STANFORD, Calif. -- University of Texas senior Callum Beale (Adelaide, Australia) and sophomore All-American Travis Helgeson (Overland Park, Kan.) each tallied straight-set victories Wednesday to advance to Thursday's round of 32 at the NCAA Singles Championships at Stanford's Taube Family Tennis Center.
The unseeded Beale dealt Middle Tennessee State's Andreas Siljestrom a 6-2, 6-4 round-of-64 defeat, while the eighth-seeded Helgeson handily defeated Pacific's Arnar Sigurdsson, winning by a 6-3, 6-2 count. In Thursday's round of 32, Beale will face Rice's Robert Searle, whose first round opponent, Oklahoma State's Daniel Byrnes, retired in the second set of their opening-round match. Helgeson will take on LSU's Ken Skupski, who ousted Ohio State's Bryan Koniecko, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5).
Senior Roger Gubser (Laredo, Texas) saw his glorious Longhorn career come to an end Wednesday, as he suffered a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Arizona's Roger Matalonga in the round of 64. The captain leaves UT as the program's fifth-winningest singles player with 105 victories.
Beale and freshman Miguel Reyes Varela (Cuernavaca, Mexico) begin play in the 32-team doubles draw on Thursday. The Texas tandem will face a pair of familiar opponents in Mississippi's Eric Claesson and Erling Tveit, who received a 5-8 seed in the tournament. Claesson and Tveit led Beale and Reyes Varela by a 7-5 count on Saturday, May 20 in the NCAA round of 16 before the match was suspended after Texas clinched the doubles point. Texas went on knock off Ole Miss by a 4-1 count.
The start times for Thursday's matches have yet to be determined.
NCAA Singles Championships - Stanford, Calif.
Round of 64
Callum Beale (UT) def. Andreas Siljestrom (MTSU) - 6-2, 6-4 (8)
Travis Helgeson (UT) def. Arnar Sigurdsson (PU) - 6-3, 6-2
Roger Matalonga (UA) def. Roger Gubser (UT) - 6-4, 6-4
