Virginia Survives UCLA at Men's Team Indoor; Duke Beats Fla. in Women's Action
Top-ranked Virginia overcame a 3-1 deficit for the second time in the dual season to defeat No. 8 seed UCLA in Saturday's quarterfinals at the ITA Men's Team Indoor in Seattle. Ultimately it came down to No. 1 singles, with Somdev Devvarman and Harel Srugo tied at 4-4 in the third set, before Devvarman won the last two games to clinch it for the Cavaliers. Last year it was Lee Singer who put Virginia in the semifinals with a third set tiebreak win at No. 6 over Jakob Klaeson of Ole Miss; this year Virginia faces the No. 5 seeded Rebels in the semifinals. Ole Miss easily handled Oklahoma State this morning in Seattle. No. 3 Ohio State earned a 4-1 victory over USC to advance against the winner of the late match between No. 7 Texas and No. 2 Georgia. For full results, see the University of Washington website.
Fifteenth-ranked Duke and No. 6 Florida, two of the best women's teams who did not play in Madison last weekend, met Friday in Durham with the Blue Devils edging the Gators 4-3. Diana Srebrovic of Florida did not play due to injury, but the Gators won the doubles point and got wins from freshmen Julia Cohen at No. 1 and Marrit Boonstra at No. 6. Duke's two outstanding freshmen, Ellah Nze and Reka Zsilinszka, won at the No. 2 and 4 positions, junior Melissa Mang earned at point at No. 5 and sophomore Liz Plotkin clinched the win at No. 3. For details, click here.
Another very good women's team not in Madison was Vanderbilt. A feature story about their head coach Geoff Mcdonald, reprinted from Commodore Nation magazine, can be found here.
And a final college-related note: Kevin Anderson, 2006 NCAA doubles champion who left the University of Illinois after his junior year, has been named to the South African Davis Cup team for their April tie with Finland. Details here.
9 comments:
18 year old Kei Nishikori beat Sam Querrey in Delray today. Nishikori had a great junior career but this seems like an awfully quick rise to make an ATP final. His groundstrokes were extremely impressive.
It seems that Djokovic and Nadal have clearly separated themselves with their peers: Monfils, Berdych, Baghdatis, Gasquet,(maybe Murray).
Does anyone have any thoughts on who might separate themselves out of this new group of juniors: Young, Nishikori, Haase, Gulbis, Del Potro?
UCLA might have won if Srugo had made that volley on break point at 4-4 in the 3rd set against Devvarman.
Good match going on between Ole Miss and UVA right now.
Florida women bounce back and defeat #5 UNC in Chapel Hill, 6-1
yes, it is possible for an 18 year old to knock off a top 10 player!!!
the following is taken from the wire service tennis.com
18-year-old Kei Nishikori shocked top-seed James Blake by coming from a set down to win Delray Beach. The No. 244-ranked teen is the first Japanese male to win an ATP title in more than 15 years
You are right about Srugo's volley at 15-40. Don't know how he missed it. He had Somdev.
Still, it's dangerous to say the word "might" with Devvarman. As we've seen, until you've actually won the last point, he's never out of it
One thing about Somdev. All the traveling for the Davis Cup trip (to India and back in a week) has clearly affected him. He's been far from his best. Numerous unforced errors, particularly into the net, Low first serve percentage and struggling with his movement.
Nonetheless, he's still been able to get it done.
Also, The way Singh has been rolling through people he seems better than a #4.
(Written before OSU/UGa)
I think Ohio State has a reasonable chance against UVa, though IMO I can't see the Dawgs beating the Hoos.
Tveit had Devvarman today and just flat out choked...bad.
Austin,
I guess you just don't like Devvarman based upon your last couple of comments:
Austin said "UCLA might have won if Srugo had made that volley on break point at 4-4 in the 3rd set against Devvarman."
Austin said "Tveit had Devvarman today and just flat out choked...bad."
You can take any match, pro, collegiate and junior and point out a break point here or there and say all you want--- that if this point went this way or that way the other guy could have, should have, etc. won.
The fact is the game of tennis has break points at crucial times in the match -- good and great players deal with it and move on--
Devvarman won both matches as many good and great players do- in spite of crucial points here or there.
Give the kid a break-
So much for Donald Young- not only is he a bad sport (Del Ray tournament) but this 18 year old from Japan is another player within Young's age bracket (within 2 Years) on the pro circuit that is in the position or already has achieved!!
No, I watched both matches from the 2nd set on. Srugo was up 15-40 at 4-4 in the 3rd and missed a wide open volley that would have let him serve for the match. Devvarman guessed wrong and left the court wide open.
Tveit led 6-4,5-3. Then in the breaker 4-2. He flat out played better, was hitting the ball hard and not missing. When he needed just a few more points his shots started landing short and he began to miss. That, in essence, is choking, doesnt matter who it was against.
If you can't tell, I'm a big Devvarman fan. Still, I thought Tveit definitely got tight when serving for it. He made 3 straight errors, then SD hit a good passing shot.
But that's the thing with Devvarman. He's just never out of it.
I mean to have the ref over rule on the FAR sideline (when they rarely overrule) on a ball that looked wide to make it 4-2 against Somdev in the Tiebreaker.
That would have affected most folks.
But, It seemed like it fired up Somdev.
I've seen Devvarman play a number of matches. He's made more unforced errors out in Seattle than I've seen in a while. He can play MUCH better and can tighten up his groundies and serve. I really think the jet lag 10.5 hours going and 13.5 coming back to the West Coast has affected him some.
Still, he keeps finding a way.
He deserves a lot of credit for that. When things go outdoors in May, his matches (in general) will not be quite as close
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