Jan. 9, 2009
ATLANTA – The Georgia Tech men’s tennis team picked up three doubles wins and two singles in matches against players from No. 2 Texas and No. 23 Alabama Friday at the Key Biscayne Invitational in Key Biscayne, Fla.
“Today really showed us where we are at competitively,” head coach Kenny Thorne said. “We know that we can hang with the best of them, but we really have to work hard to do so. We look forward to coming out tomorrow against a very good Alabama team and correcting a few things we missed today.”
The Yellow Jackets began the day with doubles play, and came out strong taking three of the four matches against 23rd-ranked Alabama. Sophomores Miguel Muguruza and Ryan Smith led things off with an 8-5 victory over the Bama duo of Dan Buikema and Saketh Myneni. Sophomore Guillermo Gomez took court next with classmate Eliot Potvin and cruised to an 8-3 victory over Andrew Felsenthal and John Lewis. The third pair up for Tech was freshman Kevin King and Doug Kenny. The King-Kenny combo went on to defeat the Tide pairing of Billy Mertz and Michael Thompson, 8-4.
In singles play, the Jackets squared off with second-ranked Texas to close out the day. Gomez and freshman Dusan Miljevic picked up both singles wins for Tech. Gomez took on Texas front-man Dimitar Kutrosvky and came out on top with a 6-4, 6-3 win. After falling in the first set, Miljevic battled back for a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Josh Zavala in the sixth paring of the day between the two schools.
“We knew the singles play would be tough but I am proud of Guillermo and Dusan for the way they played,” Thorne added. “A couple of guys played very competitive and some others didn’t start out quick enough which really hurt us.”
Miljevic won another singles match on the day, as he picked up a side match earlier in the morning against Michigan’s Matt Parks. Miljevic won the eight-game pro-set match by a score of 8-4.
The Jackets return to action Saturday with singles play against No. 23 Alabama at 9 a.m., followed by doubles play against No. 16 Michigan at 12:30.
Singles
Gomez (GT) def. Kutrovsky (UT) 6-4, 6-3Corrie (UT) def. King (GT) 6-4, 7-5Sajous (UT) def. Potvin (GT) 6-0, 6-3Damico (UT) def. Muguruza (GT) 6-1, 6-2Reyes Varela (UT) def. Smith (GT) 6-2, 2-6, 6-0Miljevic (GT) def. Zavala (GT) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4Weigand (UT) def. Roebuck (GT) 6-3, 6-4Kane-West (UT) def. Kenny (GT) 2-6, 6-1, 6-4
Doubles
Muguruza/Smith (GT) def. Buikema/Myneni (UA) 8-5 Gomez/Potvin (GT) def. Felsenthal/Lewis (UA) 8-3 King/Kenny (GT) def. Mertz/Thompson 8-4 Walston/Jung def. Robuck/Miljevic (GT) 8-4
