Former Shocker Murkel Dellien and incoming junior WSU men’s tennis player Nicolas Acevedo won the doubles championship of the 2021 Wichita Tennis Open over the weekend.

Dellien just wrapped up his WSU career with a successful senior season where he went 14-2 in singles matches. Acevedo had a successful season as well and was pivotal in WSU’s 15-9 season.

The duo found themselves in a 3-0 deficit during the first set of the semifinals on Friday but a rain delay stopped play for the remainder of the day. They were able to sway the momentum on Saturday afternoon, winning in straight sets, 7-6, 6-3.

“Yesterday, I felt that me and Nico were playing pretty good but the other guys just won the very important points,” Dellien said. “I think that’s why the score was 3-0 in the beginning but the rain stopped us and gave us another chance to restart the match. I think we came out a little bit stronger and collected some very important points.”

Just a few hours later the duo were back in action in the finals. They split the first two sets of the championship, forcing a tiebreaker in the third set. The Shocker duo came out on top with a close 12-10 victory.

Dellien and Acevedo had not played any doubles matches prior to this weekend but were able to quickly form chemistry. Both players grew up in South America and Dellien took Acevedo under his wing once he arrived in Wichita.

“It’s a lot easier for us to speak in our language and we also live together so basically we are every day together just hanging around and just messing around,” Dellien said. “When we jump on the court like having this guy next to me, I have confidence in my game because he knows exactly what we need to win.” 

Following the conclusion of his WSU career, Dellien is planning on going pro in the sport. He said that this win will give him some confidence moving forward.

“Once you finish college and you start thinking you want to go pro, I think it’s such a nice way to start like this,” Dellien said. “It gives us and me especially a lot of confidence to really continue and keep growing in my game and improving.”

Acevedo is coming off a successful redshirt sophomore season with the Shockers in which he went 12-9 in singles matches, while clinching ranked victories over No. 22 Memphis and No. 48 SMU. 

Men’s Tennis Head Coach Danny Bryan said that this win can be a stepping stone for him heading into next year. 

“I actually think it could be big for him,” Bryan said. “He’s someone we believe in a lot and we know what he’s capable of and I think sometimes he just needed some confidence. We keep telling him, ‘hey, you’re pretty darn good’ and I think he needed Murkel, he’s really a good leader and it maybe got him over the hump a little bit.”