Florida State University Athletics
Florida State
ITA Regional Championships
Men’s Tennis Prepares for ITA Southeast Regionals
10/7/2025 12:27:00 PM | Men's Tennis
TALLAHASSEE – The Florida State men's tennis team will compete at the 2025 ITA Men's Southeast Regional Championships in Gainesville, Florida, on October 8-13 at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.
Representing Florida State will be Corey Craig, Gabriele Brancatelli (Florence, Italy), Luis Felipe Miguel, Justin Lyons, Mohammad Alkotop, Azariah Rusher, Erik Schiessl, Oren Ezerzer, and Jan Sebesta.
The 2025 ITA Regionals serve as a direct qualification for the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships. The two singles finalists from each region (26 total) and the doubles champion from each region (13 total) will earn an automatic qualification to the NCAA Individual Championships.
The Seminoles will look to build off the success at last year's ITA Regionals. Craig secured an automatic bid for the 2024 NCAA singles Championship, while Rusher earned a three-set victory in the first round of singles play after defeating Ettore Danesi of USF (6-4, 4-6, 7-5)
Results from completed matches will be updated throughout each day on the official ITA tournament page.
LAST TIME OUT:
The Florida State men's tennis team concluded the first two competitions of the fall season on September 30.
The Seminoles sent Corey Craig, Gabriela Brancatelli, Luis Felipe Miquel, and Erik Schissel to the ITA All-American Championship on September 20-28 in Tulsa. At the same time, Azariah Rusher, Justin Lyons, Mohammad Alkotop, and Oren Ezerzer competed at home for the Bedford cup on September 26-28.
No. 8 Corey Craig took the round of 64 battle of the main singles draw into a tiebreaker against Alexander Frusina, 6-7, 7-6 (7), before dropping two straight sets to Vignesh Gogineni of Yale University, 2-6, 3-6.
Schiessl dropped his first match of the tournament in the singles qualifying round of 64 with a two-set loss to Roger Ferra Pascual of Texas Christian University (2-6, 1-6). Schiessl won the qualifiers round of 32 of the consolation round against Preston Stearns of Ohio State (6-4, 3-6, 6-2).
Brancatelli fell to Julian Alonso Vivanco of Texas Christian University in two sets (3-6, 2-6), before picking up his first win in three sets to Alex Finkelstein of Southern Methodist (3-6, 6-3, 6-2).
Rusher, Lyons, Alkotop, and Ezerzer highlighted the first day of the Bedford Cup, with all four finishing 3-0 in singles play. Lyons kicked off the tournament for FSU with straight-sets win over Stefan Correa of Florida Gulf Coast University (6-4, 6-2).
Rusher also earned a dominant straight-set victory of FGCU's Christopher Smith (6-0, 6-0) and later partnered with Alkotop for a doubles win over Stavor Hadjivaran and Harry Micahlowski (FGCU), 8-3.
In the afternoon, Ezerzer rallied for a straight-set singles victory before teaming up with Lyons for an 8-4 doubles win against Rafael Segado Esteve and Mehdi Sadaoui of Miami.
Lyons capped off a strong day with another singles win, outlasting UCF's Luca Hotze in a tiebreaker: 6-7, 6-2, (10-6)
Mohammad, Rusher, and Ezerzer extended their win streaks in the quarterfinals, once again going 3-0. Rusher and Mohammed then punched their ticket to the doubles final with a pair of wins over UCF's Kai-Luca Ampaw and Nicolas Oliveria, 8-1, 8-6.
Alkotop and Rusher went on to a perfect 4-0 on the weekend in doubles after defeating Jonathan Baron/Tanner Povey of FGCU (8-6). Rusher took the final round of the main singles draw, defeating Alkotop 6-3, 6-3.
For more information on the Florida State men's tennis program, check Seminoles.com and follow us on social media at Florida State Men's Tennis (FB) and FSUMTennis (IG and X).
Players Mentioned
