Oct. 7, 2011
Tulsa, Okla. – Georgia Tech’s Kevin King and Juan Spir, the top-ranked doubles team in the nation, won twice in the in the main draw of the ITA All-American Championships Friday, defeating teams from Maryland and Oklahoma to land in Saturday’s semifinals.
The top-seeded Tech tandem, which reached the semifinals of last year’s NCAA Championship and USTA/ITA National Indoor Championship, have now reached the same stage at yet another national event.
“We got off to a quick start and were able to break early,” said King. “They broke back, but we continued to return well throughout the match and got another break. We were pretty sound fundamentally and were able to close out the match. The second match was pretty similar. We broke early, they got back on serve, but we came up with some good service games to close out the match.”
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 face a 1 p.m. ET semifinal match Saturday against 26th-ranked Andreas Mies and Alex Stamchev of Auburn. The other semifinal features third-ranked Chase Buchanan and Blaz Rola of Ohio State against No. 17 Sadio Doumbia and Ignacio Taboada of Georgia. The championship match is scheduled for Sunday.
“They’re a very solid team,” King said of his Auburn opponents, whom he and Spir were able to watch after their match Friday. “At this stage, anyone we play will be very good. We just need to stick to our game plan.”
