Cavaliers Advance to Round of 16 at NCAA Individual Championships
Story Links
May 24, 2007
ATHENS, Ga. – The Virginia men’s tennis team had one singles player and one doubles team advance to the round of 16 during day two of the NCAA Individual Championships Thursday at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. Somdev Devvarman (Chennai, India) advanced in singles play, while Devvarman and Treat Huey (Alexandria, Va.) won their opening round doubles match.
Devvarman, the tournament’s No. 2 seed, reached the round of 16 for the second consecutive year with his 6-3, 1-0 ret. win over No. 23 ranked Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State. Devvarman went up an early break in the first set, 2-1. He held that advantage to 5-3 in the set when he broke Nedovyesov again to close out the opening set 6-3. In the second set, Devvarman held to open before Nedovyesov retired due to injury in the second game.
“I came out pretty focused today and knew I had a tough opponent,” Devvarman said. “He was hurt a little bit, but I still felt like I was hitting the ball well.”
For Devvarman, the win was his 40th singles win of the season, tying the school record for wins in a season set by Brian Vahaly in 2001. Vahaly set the record as he reached the 2001 NCAA Singles final in Athens. Devvarman reached the NCAA Singles final last year.
“I’m honored to be in the same company as Brian,” Devvarman said. “Brian told me he supported me and expected me to do more. That is very humbling coming form a great player like him.”
Devvarman and Huey, the No. 2 seed in the doubles draw, opened play with a 7-6 (5), 6-3 win over Travis Helgeson and Matic Omerzel of Georgia. In the first set, the teams each held serve in every game, forcing a tiebreaker at 6-6. In the tiebreaker, the Georgia team took a 4-1 lead before the Cavalier duo won five straight points to take a 6-4 lead. After Georgia won the next point, Omerzel double faulted on set point to give the first set to Virginia, 7-6 (5). In the second set, the teams were tied 2-2 when Georgia went up 0-40 on Huey’s serve. However, the Virginia team won the next five points to hold serve and then proceeded to break Omerzel’s serve in the next game to take a 4-2 lead. The teams held serve for the remainder of the match, as the Cavalier team won the second set 6-3.
“Give them credit, they played really well, especially on their serve,” Huey said. “I thought we also had a great match serving, as we didn’t get broken all night. We won a big point after a long rally at 4-4 in the first set breaker that I thought was the turning point. Then in the second set, we got the one break we needed and finished off the match.”
With the victory, Devvarman and Huey are now 34-7 on the season. The 34 wins ties the school record for most wins by a doubles team in a season set by Vahaly and Huntley Montgomery in 2001, when they posted a 34-8 mark.
Devvarman will meet Helgeson in the round of 16 of the singles draw on Friday. Helgeson defeated Pierre Mouillon of California 6-3, 6-4 in the second round. Devvarman and Huey will play Old Dominion’s Harel Srugo and Henrique Cancado in the round of 16 Friday. The Monarch team topped Notre Dame’s Ryan Keckley and Sheeva Parbhu 1-6, 6-2, 7-5 on Thursday.