ACC Men's Tennis Championship Holds True to Seeded Form Thus Far
ACC Championships being played in Cary, NC.



April 17, 2009

CARY. N.C. – The top four seeds all remain alive as the 52nd annual Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Tennis Tournament readies for Saturday’s semifinal round.

Top-seeded Virginia downed eighth-seeded North Carolina 4-0, and No. 4 seed Florida State scored a 4-1 win over No. 5 seed Duke in Friday morning’s quarterfinal action. No. 2 seeded Miami was pushed to the limit by No. 10 seed NC State in the noon quarterfinal match before claiming a 4-3 win, and the afternoon concluded with third-seeded Wake Forest turning back sixth-seeded Virginia Tech, 4-3 .

Play continues Saturday with a 10 a.m. semifinal match that sees nationally top-ranked Virginia (27-0) put its three-year, 43-match unbeaten streak vs. ACC opposition on the line against Florida State (19-7). The Cavaliers defeated the Seminoles 4-3 in a road match at Tallahassee on March 29.

Semifinal action concludes Saturday with a 1 p.m. match between Miami (14-7) and Wake Forest (19-8). The Hurricanes scored a 4-3 win when the teams met April 5 in the regular-season match at Winston-Salem, N.C.

Virginia flashed the form it displayed through most of the regular season in moving past North Carolina on Friday morning. After clinching the doubles point with a pair of 8-3 wins by the teams of Michael Shabaz-Dominic Inglot and Sanam Singh-Houston Barrick, the Cavaliers used straight-set wins by Shabaz at No. 3 singles, Drew Courtney at No. 5 and Lee Singer at No. 6 to wrap up the match in a shade over 2 ½ hours.

Florida State used a similar formula in its win over Duke. The 16th-ranked Seminoles grabbed the doubles point with wins by ACC Player of the Year Jean Yves-Aubone and Vahid Mirzadeh at the No. 1 slot and Maciek Sykut and Drew Bailey at No. 2. Duke’s Kiril Dimitov scored a 6-3, 6-3 win over Clint Bowles in No. 2 singles, but straight-set victories by Sykut at No. 3, Bailey at No. 5 and Chris Cloer and No. 6 sealed the win for Florida State. Bailey’s 6-2, 7-6(2) win over Alain Michel proved the decisive point.

NC State made a serious bid for the upset against Miami thanks to straight-set singles wins by Christian Welte at No. 2, Derek Stephens at No. 3 and Jaime Pulgar at No. 4. But the Hurricanes captured the double point, and Daniel Vallverdu outlasted the Wolfpack’s Jay Weinacker 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 in a matchup of ranked players at No. 1 singles. Ignacio Taboada also won for Miami at No. 6, leaving the No. 5 match between the 25th-ranked Hurricanes’ Keith Crowley and NC State’s Julian Sullivan as the decider.

It proved a battle to the finish, and Crowley prevailed 1-6, 6-4, 7-5 to push the semifinals into Saturday’s semifinal.

Wake Forest scooted past Virginia Tech by winning matches in each of the top four singles slots. The 20th ranked Demon Deacons saw Cory Parr claim a 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 1 singles, and Steve Forman (No. 2), Jon Wolff (No. 3) and David Hopkins (No. 4) followed suit with straight-set wins, with Wolff’s 6-4, 7-5 win over ACC Freshman of the Year Luka Somen providing the clinching point.

Please see the attached files for complete scoring from Friday’s quarterfinal matches and an updated bracket. Follow all the action of the 2009 ACC Men’s Tennis Championship at:

http://www.theacc.com/championships/09-tennis-championship.html

Find the Complete Results from today's matches:

http://www.theacc.com/championships/09-tennis-men-agates.html#secondround