Shabaz and Jenkins Advance in NCAA Singles Championship
Story Links
STANFORD, Calif. – Two members of the Virginia men’s tennis team advanced to the second round of the NCAA Singles Championship as play began Wednesday at the Taube Tennis Center. Michael Shabaz (Fairfax, Va.) and Jarmere Jenkins (College Park, Ga.) won their first round matches, while Alex Domijan (Wesley Chapel, Fla.) and Sanam Singh (Chandigarh, India) fell in first round action.
Shabaz, the tournament’s No. 3 seed, advanced with a 2-0 (def.) win over Marcelo Arevalo of Tulsa. Arevalo was defaulted during the third game of the first set for his third code violation of the match for audible obscenities. Shabaz will meet Dean Jackson of San Diego in the second round on Thursday.
Jenkins advanced with a 6-2, 6-7(8), 6-4 win over Ionut Beleleu of Oklahoma. Jenkins was up a set and an early break in the second, but Beleleu rallied to force a second set breaker. Jenkins had three match points in the breaker, but Beleleu fought them off and forced a decisive set. Due to a game penalty following the conclusion of the second set, Jenkins began the third down a break, 1-0. However, he won five of the next six games to take a 5-2 lead. After Beleleu held for 5-3, Jenkins had three match points on his serve in the next game before he was broken for 5-4. Jenkins converted his fourth match point of the following game, his 10th of the match, to break Beleleu for the three-set win. He will play 9-16 seed John-Patrick Smith of Tennessee in the second round.
Domijan, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, was upset in the first round by Sebastian Fanselow of Pepperdine, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1. After winning the first set, Domijan was broken in the final game of the second set to lose it 6-4. Fanselow went up an early break, 3-0, in the third and later broke Domijan a second time in the set to close out the match.
Singh saw his senior season end with a 6-3, 6-4 loss to fourth-seeded Rhyne Williams of Tennessee. Singh concludes his Virginia career with 144 singles wins, which ranks second in program history behind his countryman Somdev Devvarman (158).
Drew Courtney (Clifton, Va.) withdrew from the singles tournament to focus on the doubles tournament. Courtney only played doubles in Virginia’s last four team matches due to a foot injury.
Thursday’s schedule features the second round of singles and the first round of doubles. The doubles teams of Courtney/Shabaz and Domijan/Jenkins will be in action, in addition to the second round singles matches for Shabaz and Jenkins.