Devvarman wins UVa Fall Invitational Championship
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Sept. 26, 2004
CHARLOTTESVILLE – Virginia first-year Somdev Devvarman (Tamil Nadu, India) captured the Flight A singles title of the UVa Fall Invitational, his first collegiate event. Devvarman won the title defeating teammate Rylan Rizza (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.) in a three set epic.
Devvarman downed Rizza in a three-hour match, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (5). Devvarman and Rizza split the first two hard fought sets. The two players then held serve in the third set until the score was 5-5. Devvarman then broke Rizza to take a 6-5 lead. However, Rizza broke back to force a tiebreaker for the championship title. The tiebreaker was tied at 5-5 before Devvarman won the final two points to capture the championship.
In the semifinals Sunday morning, Devvarman defeated No. 8 seed Todd Paul of Wake Forest 6-3, 6-3. Rizza, seeded sixth at the event, defeated teammate Marko Miklo (Bratislava, Slovakia), the No. 7 seed, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.
“This tournament provided three great days of collegiate tennis and was capped off by a tremendous singles final,” said Virginia head coach Brian Boland. “I am proud of both Somdev and Rylan. They each had a terrific weekend of tennis and played an entertaining championship match that was played at an extremely high level for September. We still have a lot of improving to do, but it was a great performance this early in the season.”
In other championship action on Sunday, Harvard’s Shantanu Dhaka defeated William & Mary’s Alexandru Cojanu for the Flight B title. Harvard’s team of Jonathan Chu and Ashwin Kumar won the Flight A doubles crown, while Ben Zink and Will Shaw of NC State took the Flight B doubles title.
