Devvarman Rolls into NCAA Singles Quarterfinals

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TULSA, Okla. Top-seeded Somdev Devvarman (Chennai, India) advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2008 NCAA Singles Championship with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Erling Tveit of Mississippi at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.

Devvarman becomes the first player to reach the NCAA Singles quarterfinals in three consecutive years since Jose Luis Noriega of San Diego (1990-92). Stanford’s Dan Goldie (1984-86) is the only other player to reach three consecutive quarterfinals since 1977 when the singles tournament was split from the team championship.

Devvarman needed just one hour and 20 minutes to defeat Tveit and advance to the quarterfinals. In the opening set, Devvarman went up an early break, 2-1. He maintained that one-break advantage to 5-3 when he broke Tveit again to close out the set. After holding in the first game of the second set, Devvarman broke Tveit at love to take a 2-0 lead. The Cavalier held in his next service game, broke Tveit again, and held serve to open a 5-0 lead in the second set. After Tveit held serve, Devvarman serve out the match for the 6-3, 6-1 win.

The win was Devvarman’s 15th career NCAA Singles Championship victory, extending his tournament record. He improves to 41-1 this season in singles and has won his last 33 consecutive matches.

Devvarman will meet No. 9-16 seed Denes Lukacs of Baylor in Saturday’s quarterfinals. Match time is noon CT (1 p.m. ET).

Devvarman and Huey, the top seed in the doubles draw, were upset in Friday’s second round by Conor Pollock and Austin Krajicek of Texas A&M 6-3, 6-4. The Cavalier duo took an early lead in the first set 3-1, but the Aggies rallied to win the next five games to take the opening set. In the second set, the match remained on serve until 3-3 when the Texas A&M team notched the only service break of the set and closed out the set 6-4.

With the loss, Huey’s Cavalier career comes to an end. He finishes with a school record 134 career doubles wins.