Fares Ghasya and Jared Donaldson will have an interesting Monday morning on the courts.

The doubles partners will go head to head, and the winner gets into the main draw of the USTA Men’s Pro Circuit Futures tournament at Lewis and Clark Community College.

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“Jared and I know each other, and we did well playing doubles last weekend at the Futures in Joplin,” Ghasya said. “It will definitely be an interesting match.”

Ghasya, of Libya, plays for the University of Illinois and is entering his junior year. He defeated No. 15 Vullnet Tashi, of Switzerland, 6-3, 6-2 Sunday.

“I attacked well and played aggressively and came up to the net which helped.”

Last week he worked his way through qualifying and lost in the first round of the main in Joplin.

No. 3 Donaldson, 16, of Rhode Island, defeated Hans Hach Verdugo, of Mexico, 7-5, 6-2 Sunday. He lost in the second round of the singles main draw at Joplin.

As a team, Donaldson and Ghasya made their mark at Joplin. They played in the semifinal losing 6-1, 6-3 to the No. 1 ranked doubles finals winners Daniel Garza, of Mexico, and Roberto Maytin, of Venezuela.

Ghasya is the last U of I player in the qualifying round. Freshman Alexander Jesse lost to Danill Proskura, of Armenia, 6-0, 4-6, 6-0. Freshman No. 16 Jared Hiltzik lost to Brett D. Clark 1-6, 6-4, 6-4. Roy Kalmanovich lost to No. 11 Devin McCarthy 6-2, 6-3.

But don’t count the Illini out. Stephen Hoh, of Australia, 2013 graduate and former player, has secured a No. 15 spot in the main. Sophomore Tim Kopinski earned a wild card spot in the main when he won the Bud Simpson tournament earlier this summer.

Two Texas A&M players are still in the running with Carolina on their minds.

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No. 1 American Jeremy Efferding, A&M sophomore, defeated Charles Depaolo 6-1, 6-0, and will face American Sean Weber, a sophomore at North Carolina State.

No. 2 Shane Vinsant, A&M freshman, defeated John Templeman 6-0, 6-0, and plays No. 9 Ron Schnieder, who will play his freshman year at the University of North Carolina.

No. 4 Dane Webb, a sophomore at the University of Oklahoma, will play No. 14 Oleg Dmitriev, of Russia. Dmitriev has a current ITF 1535 ranking, and Webb was ranked No. 64 in college singles this spring.

No. 6 Marcos Giron, a UCLA freshman who earned All American, will play Robbie Mudge, a junior at North Carolina State University who collected 10 wins this spring season.

No. 10 Sahr Timothy Kpulun, of Sierra Leone, has a ranking of 1426. He will play Adam Lee, of New Zealand, a sophomore at Wake Forest who set a single season record with 38 singles wins.

No. 11 Devin McCarthy, a recent graduate of Ohio State University, will play American Andre Dome, a Cal Poly graduate who and advanced farther than any Mustangs men's tennis player in Division I program history.

American Brett Clark, a freshman at the University of North Carolina, will play Danill Proskura, of Armenia, a junior at the University of Alabama.

Clark headed into a dual match season ranked 57th nationally in singles in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings last fall.

Proskura won the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Arthur Ashe Leadership & Sportsmanship Award for the Southern Region this spring.

The 16 finalists will begin playing at 9 a.m. Monday at the Andy Simpson Tennis Complex at the college.

For more information about the tournament or to get directions to campus, call (618) 468-6252 or visit www.lc.edu/usta 

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