The UT Tyler doubles team of Gonzalo Fernandez Gil and Joaquin Bianchi captured the ITA South Central Doubles Championship on Saturday at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls.

The UT Tyler team of Joaquin Bianchi and Gonzalo Fernandez Gil won the doubles championship of the ITA South Central Regional tennis tournament, hosted by Midwestern State University on Saturday, in Wichita Falls.

With the victory, the Patriots qualify for the ITA Cup scheduled for Oct. 13-16 in Rome, Georgia.

After finishing as runners-up last year, Bianchi and Fernandez Gil returned to win the title. The No. 2 seeds upset No. 1 seeds Tomas Almeida-Thomas Cardona of Cameron University, 6-4, 3-6, 10-8, in the championship match.

In the first round, Bianchi and Fernandez Gil scored an 8-6 win over Midwestern State’s Charles Heffernan and Stefan Andrei, and followed with wins over Oskar Irdoga-Ryan Koth of St. Mary’s (8-2 in Round of 16), No. 6 Paul Schwieger-Hector Flores of UT Permian Basin (9-7 in quarterfinals) and Takumi Katsuda-Jonas Krahofer of UT Permian Basin (7-6 (4), 6-4 in the semifinals).

The Patriot team of Jonas Dixon and Yudai Watanabe earned a semifinal berth before falling to Almeida-Cardona, 6-2, 7-6 (4).

Dixon and Watanabe scored an 8-4 win over Western New Mexico team of Lachlan Rowing and Paul Claussen in the Round of 32. They then upset No. 4 seeds Nicolas Llosa and Sebastian Azcui of St. Mary’s (8-4) in the Round of 16, followed by a quarterfinal victory over Sabri Laphitz-Carlos Gutierrez of Lubbock Christian (8-4).

In singles, Bianchi, the No. 4 seed, earned a semifinals berth before falling to Katsuda, 6-4, 6-4. No. 11 seed Martins Abamu of Lubbock Christian won the tourney with a 2-6, 6-0, 7-5.

Bianchi scored wins over Luis Diaz Argente of Midwestern State (6-3, 6-0 in Round of 64), Irdoja (6-0, 6-2 in Round of 32), No. 16 Grzegorz Rudnicki of UT Permian Basin (6-4, 6-4 in Round of 16) and No. 15 Juan David Duque of Midwestern State (7-5, 6-3 in quarterfinals).

Fernandez Gil, the No. 3 seed, made the quarterfinals with wins over Claussen (6-2, 6-0 in Round of 64), Schwieger (6-4, 6-0 in Round of 32) and Alvaro Soler of St. Mary’s (7-5, 3-6, 6-4 in Round of 16). He lost to Abamu in the quarterfinals (2-6, 6-0, 7-5).