March 3, 2018
THE FLATS – With all eyes on court six, senior Daniel Yun was able to grind out a three-set victory to give Georgia Tech the 4-3 victory over in-state foe Georgia State on Saturday afternoon at Ken Byers Tennis Complex.
The Yellow Jackets (5-7, 1-1 ACC) fell in a hole early, despite 45th-ranked Michael Kay and Carlos Divar grabbing their fourth-straight victory. A heartbreaking 6-all tiebreak in doubles went against them at the No. 2 spot as Elijah Melendez and D. Yun fell 7-6 (6) to relinquish the doubles point and put Tech behind 1-0 to the 45th-ranked Panthers (7-7, 1-0 Sun Belt).
Once in singles, however, Tech refused to fade away. Senior Kay used a straight-set victory over Kevin Huynh (6-2, 6-1) to kick things off and tie the match at 1-1. Divar then followed suite by snapping his recent skid and downing Andreai Andrukhou, 6-2, 6-3, at the No. 1 position.
Phillip Gresk put Tech in great position with a win at the No. 3, defeating GSU’s Quentin Coulaud, 6-4, 6-3 to put Tech up 3-1.
The Panthers wouldn’t go away quietly, however, as Sebastian Acuna took the No. 2 singles from Melendez, 6-2, before Giles Hussey took down Andrew Li at the 4, 6-4, 6-4, to deadlock the match at 3-3.
D. Yun broke out of the gates strong against Bailey Showers to get a 6-4 win in the first set, but a late break gave Showers the equalizing 7-5 victory in set two to force the deciding third.
D. Yun wound up taking three break points overall, with Showers battling back to re-break in two. The Marietta, Ga. native took a momentum swinging 40-40 deuce point in the 11th game to go up 6-5 before the senior capitalized with a match-winning ace to clinch the match for the Jackets.
Georgia Tech men’s tennis will get a 15-day break before playing ACC opponents the rest of the way. The Jackets return to the court when they head on the road to take on Florida State in Tallahassee on March 18. First serve is scheduled for 1 p.m.
NOTES:
The victory gives Georgia Tech its first win over a nationally ranked opponent this season and its first since May 12, 2017 (4-1 over No. 39 Minnesota in NCAA Regional) … Carlos Divar and Michael Kay won their fourth-straight doubles match, improving to 13-4 overall and 9-2 in dual matches … Divar/Kay are now 7-3 in their last 10 matches … Kay is just three doubles victories away from tying Guillermo Gomez (64 – 2008-11) for 13th all-time in program history … Daniel Yun captured his second-straight victory on the weekend to improve to 4-3 in dual matches this season … D. Yun is two singles wins away from reaching the half-century mark for his career … Since the Start of February, Kay has won four out of five singles matches, all but one battling through three sets.
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