Shabaz Upsets No. 1 Player at ITA National Indoors

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NEW HAVEN, Conn — Two members of the Virginia men’s tennis team continued play Friday at the ITA National Indoor Individual Championships on the campus of Yale University. Junior Michael Shabaz (Fairfax, Va.) rolled into the semifinals in singles with a pair of wins, including over the No. 1 ranked player nationally.

Shabaz, ranked No. 14 nationally, opened play Friday with a 6-4, 7-6 win over No. 24 Dennis Nevolo of Illinois. He followed that win later in the day with a 6-4, 7-6 win over Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State, the No. 1 player in the ITA preseason rankings. He becomes the first Cavalier to defeat a No. 1 ranked singles player since Somdev Devvarman defeated No. 1 John Isner of Georgia in the 2007 NCAA Singles Final. In the semifinals, Shabaz will play No. 5 Guillermo Gomez of Georgia Tech.

Freshman Jarmere Jenkins (College Park, Ga.) fell in the second round to Steve Johnson of USC, 7-5, 6-4. Johnson advanced later in the day to the other semifinal, where he will play John-Patrick Smith of Tennessee.

The tournament runs through Sunday at Yale.

In other Cavalier tennis action, junior Sanam Singh (Chandigarh, India) had his tremendous run at the Virginia National Bank Challenger at the Boar’s Head Sports Club come to an end in the quarterfinals. Singh suffered a 7-5, 6-7, 7-6 loss in to No. 2 seed Kevin Kim, the No. 105 ranked player in the world. Former Cavalier Devvarman advanced to the semifinals at the tournament and will play Ryan Sweeting on Saturday.