No. 3 Virginia Advances to ITA Indoors
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 3 Virginia men’s tennis team (5-1) picked up a 4-0 victory against Florida Atlantic (5-1) on Sunday (Jan. 28) in the ITA Kickoff Weekend final at the Boar’s Head Sports Club in Charlottesville, Va.
Virginia won the doubles point and picked up victories on singles courts two, four and six. Grad student James Hopper won the clinching point for the Cavaliers.
Hopper and fellow grad student Graziani opened the match with a 6-3 win on the top doubles court. The Cavaliers took the point when Joao Graca of FAU suffered an injury during his doubles match on court three and had to retire.
In singles, the Cavaliers won five of six first sets. The lone outlier, sophomore Måns Dahlberg, bounced back from dropping his first set 3-6 by taking his second 7-5.
The Cavaliers’ three singles wins came in rapid succession, all finishing within three minutes of one another. Graziani got it started by closing out a 6-3, 6-3 win on court four. Freshman Dylan Dietrich powered through a tiebreaker to decide the second set, 7-0, to put UVA up 3-0, while Hopper closed it out with a 6-3, 7-5 win against Kurt Miller on court six.
Senior Jeffrey von der Schulenburg, who won a tiebreaker to decide his first set, was up 5-0 in the second set when play was suspended.
With the victory, the Cavaliers earn one of 16 slots in the field of the 2024 ITA National Team Indoor Championship being held Feb. 16-19 at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.
The Cavaliers have won six ITA National Team Indoor Championships, including four straight from 2008 to 2011 and most recently in 2017 when the tournament was held in Charlottesville.
#3 Virginia 4, Florida Atlantic Men’s Tennis 0
Singles competition
- #38 Inaki Montes (VA) vs. Alberto Colas (FAU) 6-4, 5-4, unfinished
- Dylan Dietrich (VA) def. Jiri Jenicek (FAU) 6-4, 7-6 (0)
- #26 J vd Schulenburg (VA) vs. Juan Martin Jalif (FAU) 7-6 (3), 5-0, unfinished
- Edoardo Graziani (VA) def. Mark Havlicek (FAU) 6-3, 6-3
- Mans Dahlberg (VA) vs. John Bernard (FAU) 3-6, 7-5, 1-0, unfinished
- James Hopper (VA) def. Kurt Miller (FAU) 6-3, 7-5
Doubles competition
- Edoardo Graziani/James Hopper (VA) def. Jiri Jenicek/Simon Myslivec (FAU) 6-3
- Dylan Dietrich/J vd Schulenburg (VA) vs. Alberto Colas/Juan Martin Jalif (FAU) 4-2, unfinished
- Inaki Montes/Douglas Yaffa (VA) def. Joao Graca/Kurt Miller (FAU) 4-3, retired
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (4,2,6)
T-2:14 A-156