May 21, 2009

Inglot and Shabaz Upset No. 1 Seed in NCAA First Round
The Virginia men’s tennis team had one singles player and one doubles team advance to the round of 16 of the NCAA Individual Championships on the second day of play at the Mitchell Tennis Center. The Cavalier duo of Dominic Inglot (London, England) and Michael Shabaz (Fairfax, Va.) scored a first round upset of the No. 1 seed Jonas Berg and Bram ten Berge of Ole Miss in doubles, while Sanam Singh (Chandigarh, India) advanced to the round of 16 in singles play.

Inglot and Shabaz, ranked No. 12, played a close first set with the top-ranked Rebel duo. Both teams served well as no game even went to deuce and the opening set went to a tiebreaker. The Virginia team took a 5-3 lead in the breaker only to see the Ole Miss team win four straight points to win the tiebreaker 7-5.

In the second set, Inglot and Shabaz took an early lead, breaking Berg at love in the second game to take a 2-0. That one break was all the Cavalier team needed, holding serve in the set to take it 6-3. 

Weinacker Blasts to Round of 16, Earns All-American Honors
Senior Jay Weinacker became the first NC State men’s tennis player to advance to the round of 16 at the NCAA Individual Singles Championship since Roberto Bracone reached the round in 1999. Weinacker also earns All-American honors, becoming the first Pack player to do so since Bracone. Weinacker defeated No. 54 Diego Cubas of South Carolina, 7-6 (1), 6-4, in the round of 32 on Thursday, May 21, to advance. He will face the winner of the match between Steven Moneke (Ohio State) and Enrique Olivares (East Tennessee State), on Friday, May 22 in College Station, Texas.

Weinacker started the first set at a 3-1 deficit, but bounced back and won four of the next five games to take the 5-4 lead. After Cubas tied up the games, Weinacker retook the lead in a game that went to 40-all and multiple points were played until Jay earned the advantage and turned it into a win for the game. Cubas won the next game, sending the set into a tie-break. Weinacker dominated the tiebreak, 7-1, to win the first set 7-6.

In the second set, the two opponents traded games back and forth. Weinacker was able to pull ahead and win the final three games for a final set score of 6-4, and earn a spot in the round of 16. 

UNC Pair Advances In NCAA Doubles Tournament
Clay Donato and Taylor Fogleman overcame a bad first set on Thursday afternoon to advance in the individual doubles portion of the NCAA Championships.

UNC's pair beat Radford's duo of Martin Sayer and Zachary Watson 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.

With the victory, Fogleman now has 99 career doubles victories. His first chance at breaking the 100-win plateau will come Friday against Kiryl Harbatsiuk and Anton Stryhas of Sacramento State, who upset the overall No. 3 seed in the tournament on Thursday. 

Bowles And Seminoles End Season In Heartbreaking Fashion
Sophomore Clint Bowles' chance to become an All-American slipped through his fingers in the second round of the 2009 NCAA Men's Tennis Singles Championships in College Station, Texas.

The 58th-ranked Bowles lost to Rice's Bruno Rosa in three sets 5-7, 7-5, 6-0 to end his season. In the first set, both players held serve easily until 6-5. The Tampa, Fla., capitalized on his only break chance of the set to take the set 7-5. It looked like Bowles was going to cruise into the round of 16 earning two breaks in the second set to go up 5-1. However, Rosa was able to break Bowles and save three set points at 5-3 to get a second break. Rosa won the last six games of the set and cruised to a 6-0 victory in the third and deciding set to advance.

In the first round of doubles, juniors Jean-Yves Aubone and Vahid Mirzadeh were defeated by Oklahoma State's Oleksandr Nedovyesov and Nathan Byrnes, 6-2, 6-2. The duo started slowly losing the first four games of the first set and could not recover to lose 6-2. The pair went down an early break in the second set and went on to lose 6-2. 

Gomez Defeated In NCAA Singles
After taking the first set, Georgia Tech's 11th-ranked Guillermo Gomez couldn't maintain the lead as he fell 6-3, 3-6, 2-6 to Southern Cal's Steve Johnson in the round of 32 Thursday at the 2009 NCAA Singles Championships in College Station, Texas.

The sophomore All-American jumped out to a commanding lead early, taking the first set 6-3. He then led 1-0 in the second, before Johnson climbed back to take the set by a 6-3 score. Gomez then fell behind 4-1 in the third, before his opponent closed out the set and the match with the win.

Gomez ends his outstanding season with a 29-10 record in singles play. He surpassed his 2008 win total of 27 by two-matches, and with 56 career wins he currently sits at eighth on the school's all-time win percentage list at .718 (56-22). Some of his honors include being named the ITA Mideast Region Player to Watch, as well as being named All-ACC for the second-straight year. Gomez was also outstanding in the classroom, garnering ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District III Second Team honors.