Domijan, Courtney/Shabaz Reach ITA All-American Finals
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TULSA, Okla. – The Virginia men’s tennis team had players advance to both the singles and doubles finals at the ITA All-American Championships at the Case Tennis Center at the University of Tulsa. First-year Alex Domijan (Wesley Chapel, Fla.) will play for the singles title, while Drew Courtney and Michael Shabaz (Fairfax, Va.) will play for the doubles title at the year’s first major tournament.
Domijan won a pair of matches on Saturday to become the second Cavalier to reach the ITA All-American singles final. Brian Vahaly fell in the final in 1999. In his first match of the day, he defeated ninth-seeded Alex Lacroix of Florida 6-3, 6-4 in the quarterfinals. Later in the day, he topped third-seeded and reigning NCAA singles champion Bradley Klahn of Stanford 7-5, 6-4. He will play eighth-seeded Eric Quigley of Kentucky in Sunday’s final as he looks to become just the third freshman to win the event (Scott Davis of Stanford in 1980 and Ryan Wolters of Stanford in 1995).
Courtney and Shabaz, the tournament’s No. 3 seed, advanced to the final with a 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 win over top-seeded Reid Carleton and Henrique Cunha of Duke in the semifinals. They will meet Chase Buchanan and Blaz Rola of Ohio State in the final. Courtney and Shabaz, the reigning NCAA Champions, have now won nine consecutive matches against collegiate competition dating back to last season.They are looking to become the second Cavalier team to win the title (Somdev Devvarman and Treat Huey won the ITA All-American in 2007).
Two other Cavaliers fell in the singles quarterfinals on Saturday. Courtney lost 6-1, 6-2 to Carleton and Sanam Singh (Chandigarh, India) fell 6-4, 6-1 to Quigley.
Also on Saturday, Jarmere Jenkins (College Park, Ga.) reached the semifinals of the singles consolation draw. He topped Gonzalo Escobar of Texas Tech 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 in a three-and-a-half hour marathon in the quarterfinals before falling to Javier Garrapiz of Georgia in the semifinals, 6-3, 6-2.
Both the singles and doubles finals will be played at 10 a.m. Sunday at the Case Tennis Center.