SPARTANBURG, S.C. – ETSU’s Yusuf Khamis has been named the Southern Conference men’s tennis player of the week for all matches played Jan. 21-27, the conference announced Tuesday. The junior went 2-0 in singles play and 1-1 in doubles action as ETSU fell to No. 7 Wake Forest and downed No. 33 Penn State in the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
 
The win over the Nittany Lions was ETSU’s highest-ranked win since May 15, 2010 when the Bucs defeated No. 32 Alabama, 4-2, in the NCAA tournament.  
 
In singles, Khamis, now 4-0 on the season, fell in the first set against Wake Forest, but rebounded to beat Taha Baadi, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 at flight one. A day later he took down Penn State’s Christian Lakoseljac 7-5, 7-6 (2), again in the top spot, to finish off a 2-0 week. Khamis trailed 5-0 in the first set but fought back to win the set 7-5 before winning a close second set.  
 
In doubles action, the native of Cairo, Egypt, played at No. 1 with teammate Juan Lugo. The pair beat Eduardo Nava and Henri Squire of Wake Forest 7-6(8) and fell 6-3 to Penn State’s Lakoseljac and Christos Antonopoulous, ranked No. 33 as a duo.
 
ETSU returns to action Friday, Jan. 31, at No. 42 Utah and takes on No. 46 BYU the next day.
 
Also nominated: Jake Bhangdia (Furman) and Kerim Hyatt (Chattanooga).  
 
SoCon Men’s Tennis Players of the Week
Jan. 21 – Niklas Gerdes, Chattanooga
Jan. 28 – Yusuf Khamis, ETSU