Bahamian collegiate tennis player Jacobi Bain and his men’s doubles partner Juan Ramirez, of Colombia, fell one win short of winning the title at the ITA (Intercollegiate Tennis Association) Cup Championships in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), losing to the number one seeded team, the Georgia Gwinnett College Grizzlies, in straight sets.
Bain and Ramirez fell to the Georgia Gwinnett pair of Agustin Tamagnone and Valentino Caratini, both Argentineans, in a straight sets final, 6-4 and 6-4, at the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College in Rome, Georgia. For Tamagnone, it was his second title as he also won in singles.
Bain, a 6’1” 190-pound freshman for the Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) Gold Rush men’s tennis team, has been having a fantastic season, appearing in three men’s doubles finals with Ramirez, a senior. They advanced to the doubles finals of the event with a three-set win over the number three seeded team of Nick Nienhaus, of Germany, and American Chris Papa from San Diego Christian College out of Santee, California. They won, 7-5, 4-6 and 1-0 (10-5).
In the semifinals, Bain and Ramirez took down the number two seeded team from Georgia Gwinnett, winning in three sets over Daniel Czepielewski, of Germany, and Federico Bonacia, of Italy, 6-2, 4-6 and 1-0 (10-2).
“We got off to a slow start because we were playing the name instead of the ball,” said XULA Coach Alan Green after the match, referring to Georgia Gwinnett’s current streaks of seven NAIA national team championships and 147 dual-match victories. “The second set, we started putting a lot more balls in the court, and it began to put pressure on Gwinnett. It was a tough match, but we came out on top this time.”
In the opening round of the main draw, Bain and Ramirez scored a 6-4 and 6-4 victory over Vitek Subert, of the Czech Republic, and Australian Nathan Cooke of William Woods University out of Fulton, Missouri.
Bain and Ramirez have a 9-2 win/loss record this season. They had received an at-large bid to take part in the men’s doubles competition at the ITA Cup Championships following their performances in their previous two tournaments. They were the runners-up from the ITA Gulf Regional Championships at the XULA Tennis Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, earlier this month, and they won the men’s ‘B’ doubles competition at the HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) National Championships at the South Fulton Tennis Center in College Park, Georgia, in September.
Bain started off the season with a 5-0 record in singles and doubles before falling at the ITA Gulf Regional Championships.
The post Bain, Ramirez fall in men’s doubles final appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/bain-ramirez-fall-in-mens-doubles-final/
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