LAS VEGAS – Sophomore Sebastian Dominko had a very strong showing at the M15 Las Vegas professional event last week. He began his campaign when the tournament began on Monday and played six matches in six days against elite competition en route to his second career professional semifinal appearance.
Dominko’s campaign opened up in qualifying where he defeated junior wildcard recipient, Meecah Begun, in straight sets by a 6-3, 6-4 score. He then took out the #4 seed in qualifying, Jordan Hasson, who is currently a junior at the University of Oklahoma. Dominko would take the contest 7-6(3), 6-3 to advance through qualifying and into the main draw.
Main draw play began on Wednesday where he drew #5 Nathan Ponwith, who finished his collegiate career for Arizona State. Dominko would take the first set 6-3 and follow it with a tiebreak win 7-6 to take out the world #473.
In the second round, he would play fellow qualifier and fellow lefty, Alex Petrov. Petrov is a senior for the University of Illinois who is ranked 54th in the ITA singles rankings to start the year and who Dominko lost to last year in the dual match in a third set. He would get off to a great start with a quick 6-2 first set win but would drop the second 6-3 and head to a full third set. Dominko would find himself down 2-4, 15-40 before mounting the comeback and securing four-straight games to take the match.
The quarterfinal matchup would be against another lefty in Alex Razeghi, who has been the #1 player in the senior class in the United States. Dominko would have a very slow start and find himself down 1-5 in the first set. But showing fight and resilience, he would win six-straight games to stay in the set and ultimately win the first in a tiebreak. The second set would be less of a rollercoaster and Dominko would win a 6-4 set to close out the match and move to the semifinals.
Saturday’s semifinal match came against 2016 NCAA Champion and former ATP #181 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, the #3 seed in the tournament. Dominko had a hot start to the match, playing his highest level tennis of the week to capture the opening set 6-3. That momentum would continue as he broke early and found himself up 4-2 in the second. But the 28-year old veteran would hang around and even up the set with a break and hold. The second set would extend but go the way of the former Virginia Cavalier and he would run away with the third 6-1 one to end the phenomenal week from the Notre Dame sophomore.
Thoughts from Coach Sachire:
“It was a great week for Seb to win five matches against high quality completion in a professional event. It is obviously a big confidence booster for him seeing the success he had. He learned a lot about himself and his game and will benefit greatly from that in the future.”