TEMPE – Sun Devil men’s tennis will be well-represented in the US Open this year between sophomore Murphy Cassone, freshman Constantinos Koshis, and alumnus Michael Geerts. Cassone and Geerts, playing in the men’s bracket, begin qualifying competition Tuesday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York. Koshis is in the juniors bracket and will begin play when juniors qualifying begins on September 2. The entirety of the US Open runs Aug. 23-Sept. 13 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
This will be the first grand slam competition for both Cassone and Geerts. Cassone was one of nine American men to receive a wildcard bid for the qualifying tournament, while Geerts will represent his home country of Belgium. Koshis will represent Cyprus. Cassone is third up on Tuesday, and Geerts follows as fourth up.
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Cassone had a standout freshman year for the Sun Devils going 15-5 in singles and a perfect 9-0 in Pac-12 play. He reached No. 17 in the ITA Rankings, earned ITA Rookie of the Year and defeated four top-10 opponents en route to reaching round one of the NCAA Singles Championship. One of Cassone’s greatest defeats of the season came against the No. 1 college tennis player at the time, Auguste Holmgren from the University of San Diego. The efforts of the Overland Park, Kansas, native also earned him a spot on the USTA Collegiate Summer Team as one of two Pac-12 men to reach the prestigious training team. This summer, Cassone’s victories included one over 2021 NCAA singles national champion Sam Riffice of Florida who Cassone defeated twice.
Currently, Geerts ranks No. 231 in the ATP Singles Ranking, the highest in his career, with almost 300 professional wins and was as high as No. 13 in the ITF Singles Rankings back in December 2019. Geerts joined the Sun Devils in spring 2017 and notched an 11-5 record in the fall, which included two four-match win streaks. At the time, he was the first Sun Devil since before at least 2004 to earn a bid to the NCAA Men’s Tennis Singles Championship. In the 2017-18 season, Geerts became one of three players to notch two wins over top-5 opponents that season with his victories over the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the country in straight sets.
Koshis enters this tournament currently ranked No. 73 in the ITF Junior…
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