Devvarman, Shabaz to Compete at US Open

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FLUSHING, N.Y. – The Virginia men’s tennis program will be well represented this week as the US Open begins at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Junior Michael Shabaz (Fairfax, Va.) will compete in doubles while former Cavalier Somdev Devvarman will compete in singles.

Shabaz, who won the NCAA Doubles Championship last season with Dominic Inglot was given a wild card into the Open by the USTA. He will team with Wayne Odesnik, currently ranked No. 86 in the world in singles, in the doubles draw. They will play rising American stars Sam Querrey and John Isner in the first round.

Devvarman won three qualifying matches to reach the main draw of a grand slam tournament for the first time in his career. He topped Alex Bogomolev, Igor Sijsling and Jerzy Janowicz to advance to the field of 128. On Monday, Devvarman makes his US Open debut when he plays No. 106 ranked Frederico Gil of Portugal.

Devvarman is the first Virginia player to play in the US Open main draw since Brian Vahaly played the tournament in 2002 and 2003. Shabaz is the first Cavalier to play in the US Open doubles tournament since Geoff Macdonald in 1982. Shabaz is also believed to be the first current Virginia player to compete in the main draw of the US Open.

In other news involving former Cavalier players, Teddy Angelinos made the quarterfinals of the Futures event in Romania last week. In the opening round, he defeated No. 2 seed Gabriel Moraru, ranked No. 346 in the world.