Two Unseeded Seniors Reach Semis in NCAAs

©Colette Lewis 2005--
College Station TX--

Unseeded seniors Jonathan Chu of Harvard and Izak van der Merwe of Old Dominion overcame more highly regarded opponents Saturday to advance to the semifinals of the NCAA Men’s Championships. Chu dropped third seed Jesse Witten of Kentucky, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (6), while van der Merwe prevailed over UCLA’s Benjamin Kohlloeffel 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.



But it wasn’t easy.

Chu, who had not lost a set in his first three matches, was down 4-0 before he knew it.

“Jesse came out and was hitting a heavy ball," said the righthander from New York City. "I wasn’t adjusted to the intensity of it. I’m glad it wasn’t too late before I got adjusted.”

Whatever groove Chu found, it was a productive one, as he ran off seven straight games before Witten was able to stem the tide. Forehand blazing, Witten damped Chu’s momentum, taking the second set and getting an early break in the third. But an incredible overhead retrieval by Chu in the eighth game caught Witten’s blue shoes flat-footed and he failed to put away an easy floater at the net, allowing Chu to level the match.

“I never really lost faith." said Chu, the only player still in both singles and doubles. “I thought I could do it, given the opportunity.”

In the tiebreaker, Chu continued to return well, attacking Witten’s second serve whenever possible. At 5-6, Chu thought he had won when a Witten passing shot was signaled out by the line judge a beat or two late, perhaps influenced by Chu's premature celebration. But the chair umpire overruled the line judge and after a brief moment of confusion, the drama continued.

“I called it out because I’ve been used to calling my own matches the entire year,“ said Chu, the Ivy League Player of the Year, who is ranked 32nd nationally. “You never know how many chances you’ll have to close out a match against a top player like Jesse.”

But after a few words of encouragement from his coach Dave Fish, Chu calmly stroked an ace to go up 7-6, and converted his second match point when Witten netted a volley.

In the media room after the match, Chu, who graduates next month, mentioned the difficulty that Harvard student-athletes face when competing in the spring NCAA championships.

“I’ve never taken a final exam in spring semester at Harvard,” said Chu, who lost in the first round all three of his previous appearances. “I’ve always taken it at this tournament. I handed in my final paper last night at midnight. I needed it to graduate.”

His opponent on Sunday is top seed Benedikt Dorsch of Baylor, who continued his domination with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over unseeded freshman Greg Ouellette of Florida.

Dorsch was trying out a new racquet for this tournament, but after two double faults and a forehand that sailed long in a dropped service game in the first set, he returned to his old model and experienced no other difficulties.


Van der Merwe continued his strong play, eliminating UCLA’s Benjamin Kohlloeffel, an alphabetical seed, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3. For the second match in a row, van der Merwe served for the match in the second set and failed to convert, but seemed unfazed.

“I played a decent game. I actually had a match point,” said the 6-foot 4-inch senior from South Africa, who put in seven straight first serves in the lengthy tenth game, and still was unable to put away the crafty lefthander from Germany.

“He played a very good game there. He hit a great return on match point to my backhand, which I couldn’t pick up.”

But van der Merwe did visibly raise his game to open the third set, hitting winner upon winner from both sides, and quickly ran out to a 2-0 lead, a break he never gave back. He avoided having to serve out the match a second time when he broke Kohlloeffel at 3-5, earning his place in the semifinals against San Diego’s Pierrik Ysern. Ysern, a junior from France, staved off several set points at 5-6 against fourth seed Catalin Gard of Ole Miss, winning the first set in a tiebreaker and the second set going away, 6-0.

The doubles competition went more predictably, as the top two seeds advanced in straight sets. Georgia’s John Isner and Antonio Ruiz cruised past Marko Rejavac and David North, the surprise quarterfinalists from Georgia Tech, 6-3, 6-2. Stanford’s K.C. Corkery and Sam Warburg, the second seeds and defending NCAA champions, moved into the semifinals with their 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory over PAC 10 rivals Roger Matalonga and Colin O’Grady of Arizona.

Their opponents in the semifinals will be alphabetically seeded Mark Growcott and Ken Skupski of Louisiana State, who were 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-4 winners over Brown’s Phil Charm and Adil Shamasdin.

And on Sunday, Chu will again play two matches, as he and partner Ashwin Kumar came from behind to dump Auburn’s Alex Schweizer and Gabor Zoltan in a battle of unseeded teams, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.