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MWC Tennis Players of the Week
San Diego State's Markus Dickhardt and UNLV's Elena Gantcheva pick up repeat honors
April 4, 2007 COLORADO STATE, Colo. -- San Diego State's Markus Dickhardt and UNLV's Elena Gantcheva have been named the Mountain West Conference men's and women's Tennis Players of the Week, respectively. This marks the fourth award of the season for Dickhardt and the second for Gantcheva. Dickhardt helped San Diego State post a perfect 3-0 mark to open league play and extend the Aztecs' season-long winning streak to seven matches. Individually, he went a combined 6-0 on the week, beating a pair of nationally-ranked players in singles action, and teaming with senior Christian Groh for a win over a nationally-ranked duo in doubles play. The 52nd-ranked Dickhardt opened singles action with a 6-1, 5-7, 6-1 victory over No. 59 Elliot Wronski of UNLV, then registered straight-set wins against New Mexico's Max Jones (6-3, 6-3) and TCU's No. 106 Cosmin Cotet (6-2, 6-1). In doubles, the No. 17 duo of Dickhardt and Groh pocketed wins over UNLV's Elliot Wronski and Brett Hunter (9-7), New Mexico's Max Jones and Kamil Pajkowski (8-3) and TCU's No. 23 pair of Cosmin Cotet and Kriegler Brink (9-8). The win over the nationally-ranked Cotet and Brink was the first of the season for the SDSU tandem. A native of Marburg, Germany, Dickhardt is currently on a career-high 14-match winning streak, one that includes a six-match win streak over nationally-ranked players. He is now 16-2 in the dual season with a 12-1 mark at No. 1 singles and a 22-5 singles record overall. In doubles, Dickhardt and Groh have won four straight and are 7-2 at the No. 1 position. Gantcheva turned in one of the most impressive individual performances of her career by going a combined 5-1 in singles and doubles, including a perfect 5-0 vs. ranked competition. With the wins, Gantcheva moved from being unranked to a No. 57 spot in this week's ITA singles rankings and from 35th to 16th in doubles. The junior did not lose a set in upsetting three opponents in singles play, beginning with a 7-6, 6-1 victory over No. 11 Theresa Logar of Stanford. She then downed No. 105 Ola Abou-Zekry of New Mexico (6-3, 7-6) and No. 54 Anna Sydorska of TCU (6-1, 6-1). In doubles play, the Sofia, Bulgaria, native teamed with freshman Kristina Nedeltcheva to knock off two higher-ranked duos to improve to 18-2 on the season. Gantcheva and Nedeltcheva opened with an 8-1 win over No. 34 Anne Yelsey and Lindsay Burdette of Stanford (8-1). Following an 8-6 loss to New Mexico's Scott and Sandra Zmak, the pair closed out the week with an 8-5 victory over No. 6 Anna Sydorska and Ana Cetnik of TCU on the Horned Frogs' home court. Gantcheva has won seven consecutive singles matches to improve her record to 15-4 in duals and 80-23 overall in her career, which moved her into fourth place all-time at the school.
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