FMU tennis pairs fall in ITA finals

MOBILE, AL - The Francis Marion University women's tennis doubles team of Tereza Sykorova and Sabina Baberadova and the men's duo of Oshada Wijemanne and Dilshod Sharifi both advanced to their respective championship matches at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Small College Championships before falling on Friday (Oct. 16).

The four-day event is being held at the Copeland-Cox Tennis Center in Mobile, Ala.

Sykorova and Baberadova, seeded second, won two matches on Thursday but then lost a heartbreaking 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-1 decision to top-seeded Yuan Jia and Seul Ki Chin of BYU-Hawaii in the Division II championship match on Friday.

Wijemanne and Sharifi, also seeded second, won their quarterfinal match on Thursday, and then defeated Armaun Emami and Austin West of the University of California-San Diego 6-0, 6-0 in Friday's semifinals before losing to top-seeded Andrey Boldarev and Alex Grubin of Concordia 7-6 (3), 6-2 in the title match.

Last month the two FMU squads each won their respective A Flight championships at the ITA Southeast Regional Tournament in Sumter, S.C.

Wijemanne and Sharifi, both juniors, ended the 2008-09 season ranked seventh nationally in Division II with a 16-3 mark, while Sykorova and Baberadova were ranked 14th at the end of last season with a 16-2 record.