Tennis Teams Return Victorious
The Turkish Intervarsity Tennis Championship was held in Antalya between March 17 and April 3. Bilkent took part in both men's and women's competitions.
Bilkent teams performed well and attained great results. Bilkent men have been promoted to the first division, and Bilkent women, having already been in the first division, now advance to Super League varsity competition, becoming the first among Bilkent sports' team to play in the Super Leagues.
Thirteen varsity tennis teams competed in the women's first division, and the first stage of the tournament was the groups' round. The women (Ezgi Bulca, MBG/II, Öykü Arkan, IE/II, and Aslıhan Büyüksönmez, ECON/II) finished second among four teams, losing only once. As their group's runners-up, they not only maintained their first division place for next year's competition but also advanced to the next stage of the tournament to face the other two runners-up of the group stages.
In the second stage of the women's competition, Bilkent played Ege University and İstanbul University. Beating both, the women now advance to the women's varsity tennis Super League and attain a place among the twelve best university tennis teams in the country.
The men's team (Umur Aras, UTIYO/IV, Anıl Horasan, ME/II, Mert Canga, CTIS/II, and Mert Muallaoğlu, EE/I), on the other hand, participated in the second division competition where forty-six universities were in contention for advancing to the higher divisions. Not conceding even a set, the Bilkent's men's team won all its games and finished top of its group, which was comprised of eight teams. With these results, the men have been promoted to the higher division and will be competing in the first division varsity tennis next year.
Their success was the result of hard-work and devotion on part of student athletes and effective training, according to Coach Dr. Alper Uğraş.