Baker Leads Three Qualifiers into All-American Quarterfinals
©Colette Lewis--
Tulsa, OK--
Qualifier Jack Baker of South Alabama extended his Tulsa winning streak to six matches Friday, as did Robert Farah of Southern California and Alex Clayton of Stanford, as qualifiers outnumbered the top eight seeds at the Polo All-American Championships 3-2.
Baker defeated Adam Holmstrom of Denver, a nine seed, 7-6 (6), 6-4 and will face 2007 NCAA champion Somdev Devvarman of Virginia in the quarterfinals on Saturday. Devvarman faced a stern test from UCLA's Mohamed Abid before emerging with a 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 victory in a match that took nearly three hours to complete. Up an early break in all three sets, Devvarman couldn't close out Abid, and only a loose game at 4-4 in the third set by the left-hander from Tunisia gave Devvarman the advantage. At 30-30 Abid double faulted and on break point, his usually deadly forehand let him down allowing Devvarman to serve for the match. The senior from India didn't falter despite Abid's determination to go down with his forehand blazing, and Devvarman grabbed the win on his second match point.
Devvarman's teammate Treat Huey, a nine seed, eliminated No. 7 seed Erling Tveit of Ole Miss when Tveit had to retire trailing 3-0 in the third set. Huey was up 3-2 and serving when he wrong-footed Tveit, who fell to the court and stayed down for several seconds. He got up and continued the game, which he lost, before a trainer was called. After treatment to his right ankle, Tveit proceeded to win the next four games and the set, but Huey regained control and took the second set 6-3, and the next three games before Tveit threw in the towel.
Huey's opponent in Saturday's quarterfinal will be Farah, the sophomore from USC, who outlasted lucky loser Cosmin Cotet of TCU 7-6 (1), 7-6 (1). After playing six sets of tennis on Thursday, plus a pro set of doubles, Farah looked tired, often leaning over and holding his shorts after a long point, but he took advantage of poor play in the tiebreakers by Cotet to keep his sets to a minimum today.
The other quarterfinal in the bottom half will be a battle of two No. 9 seeds--Greg Ouellette of Florida and Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State. Ouellette took out qualifier Thomas Liversage of San Diego 6-3, 6-1, while Nedovyesov stopped No. 8 seed Andre Begemann of Pepperdine 6-3, 6-2.
Georgia's Travis Helgeson, the No. 4 seed, disposed of Nedovyesov's teammate Ivan Puchkarov 6-3, 6-2 to set up a meeting with Stanford freshman Clayton, a 6-1, 7-5 winner over unseeded Philippe Frayssinoux of Mississippi State.
The first of two rounds of doubles this afternoon is underway. I'll try to post on the quarterfinals later this evening and to pass along the results of the quarterfinals of the Women's All-American in Pacific Palisades.
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