Oct. 9, 2011
Tulsa, Okla. – Georgia Tech’s Kevin King and Juan Spir, the top-ranked doubles team in the nation, came up short in Sunday’s championship match at the ITA All-American Championships, falling 6-3, 6-7, 6-4, to Chase Buchanan and Blaz Rola of Ohio State, the nation’s 3rd-ranked team.
The top-seeded Tech tandem, after reaching the semifinals of last year’s NCAA Championship and USTA/ITA National Indoor Championship, were in the finals of a national event for the first time.
King and Spir got to the finals Saturday by knocking off 26th-ranked Andreas Mies and Alex Stamchev of Auburn, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, in the semifinal round.
The semifinals and finals are three-set matches, as opposed to collegiate doubles sets (first to eight games wins) that were played in the first three rounds. Friday, they eliminated John Collins and Maros Horny of Maryland, the nation’s 9th-rated doubles team, 8-3, then dispatched qualifiers Tsvetan Mihov and Peerakit Siributwong of Oklahoma, 8-5. They opened the main draw Thursday with an 8-4 win over Ohio State’s Devin McCarthy and Ille Van Engelen.
