Men's tennis player Fernando Martinez advances at the ITA Cup

The Eastern Florida State College men's tennis players opened the ITA Cup Friday at Berry College in Rome, Georgia.

And the results were mixed for the Titans who had Fernando Martinez Belinchon in the singles draw and Filip Sormaz and Marko Miljanic in doubles quarterfinal matches.

Martinez came into the singles tournament bracket as the No. 2 seed and defeated Tyler Junior College's Luka Van Geel in straight sets to reach the semifinals scheduled for Saturday.

Martinez got off to a slow start and trailed 2-0 and 3-2 in the first set before rallying to win the first set 6-4. Van Geel tied things up 5-5 in the second set, but Martinez won the next two to win 7-5 to advance at the ITA Cup.

Martinez will play No. 4 seed Kenneth Rabinad Vila in the semifinals at noon on Saturday in Rome, Georgia. Rabinad Vila beat Glendale Community College's David Tinajero 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.

The doubles team of Filip Sormaz and Marko Miljanic opened the ITA Cup as the No. 3 seed and fell short against Pratt Community College's Edward Westfall and Daniil Blinov.

Sormaz and Miljanic cruised to a 5-1 lead and won the first set 6-3. They trailed early in the second set 2-1 and 3-2 before tying the match 3-3 and forcing a tiebreaker. But the Pratt duo won 7-5 to force a tiebreaker.  The tiebreaker was all Pratt as they advanced to the semifinals.

Sormaz and Miljanic won the ITA JUCO Men's Southeast Regional Doubles Championship to qualify for the tournament.