Oct. 4, 2009

TULSA, Okla. - UNLV sophomore standout Mehdi Bouras came up just short of surviving Sunday's pre-qualifying for the D'Novo ITA Men's All-American Tennis Championships at the Case Tennis Center.

Bouras, last year's Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year, opened the day by ousting New Mexico's Conor Berg 6-1, 6-1. However, he was later defeated by Costin Pavel of Oklahoma 6-3, 7-6.

Bouras, however, learned later in the day that he had earned a "Lucky Loser" bid into the next round and will join teammate Luca Barlocchi in the qualifying draw, which starts Monday. The duo will also team up in doubles action, which gets underway Tuesday.

The preliminary tournaments feed into the 64-player, 32-doubles team main draws set for next weekend.