Somdev Devvarman Rolls into NCAA Tournament Semifinals
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May 27, 2006
STANFORD, Calif. – Virginia men’s tennis sophomore Somdev Devvarman (Chennai, India) rolled into the semifinals of the 2006 NCAA Singles Championship with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Sheeva Parbhu of Notre Dame Saturday at the Taube Tennis Center. Devvarman, seeded 9-16, will meet KC Corkery of host Stanford in the semifinals on Sunday.
In the first set, Devvarman grabbed the early advantage by breaking Parbhu in the opening game of the match. After holding his serve to go up 2-0, Devvarman broke Parbhu’s serve again to increase his advantage to 3-0. Each player held serve in the next two games as the Cavalier took the 4-1 lead. Parbhu had a chance to cut into the advantage in the next game, going up 15-40, but Devvarman fought off the break points and held for a 5-1 lead. The following game was the longest of the match, going seven deuces. Finally on his fourth set point of the game, Devvarman hit a forehand winner past Parbhu to take the first set 6-1.
In the second set, Devvarman opened by fighting off a break point against en route to holding serve in the opening game. The second game was another long game, going five deuces, and once again Devvarman was able to capitalize and break Parbhu for a 2-0 lead. Parbhu had a several chances to break right back, with three break points, but Devvarman fought each one off and hit an ace in his first game point to take a 3-0 lead. Both players held serve easily in the next five games, to make the score 5-3 in Devvarman’s favor. With the Cavalier serving for the match, he made short work of the final game, hitting two aces and two service winners to hold at love and clinch the match.
Devvarman joins Corkery, No. 1 seeded Benjamin Kohlloeffel of UCLA, and Erling Tveit of Mississippi in the semifinals. Devvarman is the only semifinalist not to have dropped a set in his first four matches of the tournament.
Devvarman is just the second Cavalier to reach the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament, joining Brian Vahaly, who reached the final in 2001. Devvarman is also the first player from the ACC to reach the semifinals since Vahaly in 2001.
Kohlloeffel will play Tveit in Sunday’s first semifinal at noon PDT (3:00 pm EDT) with the Devvarman-Corkery match set for 1:30 pm PDT (4:30 EDT).
NCAA Singles Championship
Quarterfinals – May 27, 2006
#14 Somdev Devvarman (Virginia) def. #32 Sheeva Parbhu (Notre Dame) 6-1, 6-3
#25 KC Corkery (Stanford) def. #30 Clement Reix (Clemson) 7-5, 6-2
#1 Benjamin Kohlloeffel (UCLA) def. #6 Conor Niland (California) 6-4, 6-2
#22 Erling Tveit (Mississippi) def. #9 Travis Helgeson (Texas) 7-6(4), 6-4
Semifinals – May 28, 2006
#1 Benjamin Kohlloeffel (UCLA) vs. #22 Erling Tveit (Mississippi) – noon PDT
#14 Somdev Devvarman (Virginia) vs. #25 KC Corkery (Stanford) – 1:30 pm PDT