Second seed Isner Falls to Matalonga in NCAA Men’s Action Thursday

©Colette Lewis 2006
Palo Alto CA--

Roger Matalonga of Arizona stood on the grass outside the Taube South courts, happily accepting a congratulatory phone call from his mother in Spain within minutes of his 7-6 (5), 6-4 upset of Georgia’s John Isner in second round action Thursday afternoon. Following the live scoring via the internet, she knew her son had bagged the biggest win of his college career, and had earned the designation of All-American.

Any unseeded player who wins two matches is automatically granted All-American status. (As are all seeded players, regardless of their performance in the tournament.) In addition to Matalonga, other players to earn that prestigious designation were Pierrick Ysern of San Diego, Callum Beale of Texas, (who needed over three hours to complete his victory), Adrians Zguns of Arkansas, Mississippi’s Erling Tveit, Stanford’s KC Corkery, Clement Reix of Clemson and Sheeva Parbhu of Notre Dame—all unseeded and all in the round of 16.

Matalonga was certainly the most unlikely to advance on a day so chilly and breezy that even late May California sunshine couldn’t warm it, especially when he fell behind in the first set tiebreak against the 6’ 9” Isner, the second seed.

“I came back from down 5-1 in the tiebreaker, won six straight points. After that I knew I had a chance,” said Matalonga, who was an All-American in doubles last year as a junior.

The players exchanged breaks to open the second set, but Isner was not able to get in his trademark huge first serve at 4-5, and Matalonga seized his opportunity.

“I knew I had to attack his second serve, and when I got a chance to put the ball either low or right at him.”

Matalonga also admitted to employing one other strategy—“I’m a senior, so I just wanted to try to have fun.”

Isner's day went from bad to worse as he and partner Antonio Ruiz, the defending NCAA doubles champions, lost to Konstantin Haerle and Robert Searle of Rice 6-3, 7-6.

There were two surprises on the men's side for the Stanford fans--one good and one bad. Senior Corkery easily defeated nine seed Arnaud Lecloerec of Virginia Commonwealth 6-1, 6-3, but Cardinal freshman Matt Bruch, the ITA Rookie of the Year, fell to Erling Tveit of Mississippi 7-6 (1), 7-5. Bruch, a nine seed, was down 4-0 in the second set and had not yet broken the hard-serving lefthander. But Bruch fought back to even the set at five, only to be broken in the next game, giving Tveit a second chance to serve it out.

Top seed Ben Kohloeffel from UCLA lost his first set against Eric Molnar of Colorado but came back for a 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory and will face Ysern, a finalist last year, in the third round.

The top seeded woman, Audra Cohen of Miami, also had to come from behind to post a victory. Down a set and a break to Whitney Deason of Stanford, Cohen found another gear just in time, reeling off eight straight games for a 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 win.

The only seed to lose on the women's side in second round action was Nicole Leimbach of Texas Christian, who was soundly beaten by Tatsiana Uvarova of Virginia Commonwealth 6-2, 6-0.

One quarter of the Round of 16 participants are members of Stanford's championship team. Alice Barnes, Amber Liu, Celia Durkin and Theresa Logar are all in different quarters of the draw, setting up a possibility of an all-Cardinal semifinals, but none are seeded to advance past the quarters.

The doubles upset of the day saw top seeds Scott Green and Ross Wilson of Ohio State sent packing by the Duke tandem of Joey Atas and Jonathan Stokke 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. Atas and Stokke played as if all the pressure was on the Buckeye seniors, and swinging freely, they went for and usually hit the lines.


The third seeded team of Kevin Anderson and Ryan Rowe of Illinois survived two match points in the second set tiebreak and the partisan Stanford cheering section to take a 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4 win over the Cardinal team of Corkery and James Pade. Several times during the match the umpire admonished the crowd behind the court to keep silent while the ball was in play, and although they eventually complied, a final warning was necessary to accomplish it.

On the women's side, the top two seeds advanced, but no. 3 and no. 4 did not. The third seeded Thompson twins from Notre Dame lost a third set tiebreak to Luana Magnani and Lindsey Nelson of Southern California, while Iva Gersic and Maja Dovacek of New Mexico, seeded fourth, dropped a three set marathon to Kim Coventry and Carolina Escamilla of Kentucky.

For full draws, see the Stanford website.