Wichita ? With a return to his native Paraguay scheduled for May 27, Free State High exchange student Rodolfo Gauto Mariotti is making the most of the time he has left as a high school tennis player.

After breezing through the first round of Friday’s Class 6A state tennis tournament with a straight-set victory (6-0, 6-3), Gauto Mariotti found himself locked in a quarterfinal battle that was suspended because of severe weather. The match will conclude today, beginning at 8 a.m.

“I really like to warm up a lot before I play, so to have to pick up (today) at 1-0 in the third set is tough,” Gauto Mariotti said. “But what can you do? You have to play it.”

After dropping the first set of Round 2 to Shawnee Mission East’s Ross Guignon, 6-2, Gauto Mariotti fell behind in the second set, 2-0. From there, the FSHS senior won seven straight games to take the second set, 6-2, and take a 1-0 lead into the third and final set.

At that point, play was suspended.

“I wasn’t playing consistently, and I tried to change that and got a lot of confidence when I started playing with consistency,” Gauto Mariotti said.

Gauto Mariotti’s quarterfinal match will resume with Guignon serving at 15-all in Game 2 of the third set.

In other action Friday, FSHS junior Michael Swank easily won his first-round match, 6-0, 6-0, then fell to Blue Valley North senior Eric Sock, 7-6, 6-3 in the second round.

Holding a 6-5 lead in the first set against Sock, Swank had a set point on his racket during the 12th game but lost the game and went on to lose the tiebreaker.

“Deep down, I definitely feel like it was a match I could have and should have won,” Swank said. “I feel like I had another gear that I just couldn’t find, and that’s a real frustrating feeling to come away from a match like that.”

Swank will play today in the consolation rounds, where he’ll look to secure fifth place, a two-spot improvement from his showing last season.

Also still alive is Free State’s No. 1 doubles team of Blaine Kaehr and Dravid Joseph, who fell in the first round in straight sets and will begin play in the consolation rounds around 9 a.m. today.