WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Atlantic 10 Conference has named Saint Louis senior Ryota Fukushima its Men's Tennis Performer of the Week, while VCU freshman Hamza El Amine once again took the Rookie honors. On the women's side, St. Bonaventure sophomore Isabella Venter was tabbed as the Women's Tennis Performer of the Week and Fordham's Julianne Nguyen earned Rookie of the Week honors. The awards, announced on Wednesday, were for matches played Mar. 25-31.
In SLU's only match of the week, Fukushima won in singles and doubles as the Billikens defeated Butler 4-3. The Tokyo native, topped Borja Miralles 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) at No. 1 singles and teamed with Theo Ortis for a 7-5 No. 2 doubles victory over Miralles and Patrick Joss. Fukushima has now won three consecutive matches in singles.
In a lone match against No. 69 USF last week, El Amine sparked the Black and Gold rally, down 3-1 in the match. The freshman from Casablanca, Morocco, won two tiebreaker sets on court five to bring the Rams within a point, eventually surging all the way back to a 4-3 victory.
Venter was a perfect 2-0 in both singles and doubles last week helping the Bonnies in a 1-1 wekek against Saint Joseph's and George Mason. Venter teamed up with Anastasia Gubanova at No. 2 doubles, winning 6-2 to earn the doubles point against the Patriots, and by the same score against the Hawks on court two. In singles play, the Johannesburg, South Africa product bested Ruju Chauhan (GMU) at No. 2 singles, 6-4, 6-0, and took down Fabiana Tort-Umpierre (SJU) in straight sets at No. 2, 6-1, 6-3.
Nguyen was a perfect 2-0 in singles play and 3-0 in doubles as the Rams went 4-0 on a spring break trip south. In signles play, she defeated Loyola New Orleans' Avery Frierson at No. 6 singles (1-6, 6-3, 11-9) and Nicholls State's Constanza Cruz at No. 5 singles (7-5, 6-1). The rookie from San Gabriel, Calif., teamed with Franny Shea to win at No. 3 doubles over Lamar's Martina Alcaino/Elena Rubio (6-2), at No. 2d oubles over Loyola New Orleans' Micaela Ponce/Ariana Salgueiro-Estero (7-5) and at No. 3 doubles over Nicholls State's Dareen Hassan/Noemie Piquet (6-4).