March 3, 2012
ATLANTA – Looking to even its Atlantic Coast Conference record in its home conference opener, Georgia Tech hosts Clemson in a 12 noon match Sunday at the Bill Moore Tennis Center. Admission is free and parking is available along Fowler Street.
The Yellow Jackets (5-6) are coming off a 6-1 loss at Florida State last Saturday, Tech’s fifth loss to a team ranked 31st or higher this season. The Tigers (3-6), playing their conference opener, come to Atlanta on a three-match losing streak. The teams share losses to Georgia and Tennessee on the road this spring, and each has beaten Wisconsin at home.
All-American Kevin King, the nation’s 13th-ranked player in singles, has played well this spring at the top singles position in the Tech lineup, building a 9-2 record with his only losses coming to the nation’s 2nd and 10th-ranked players. The senior from Peachtree City, Ga., has victories over the 34th and 125th-ranked players in the nation.
Juan Spir, a junior from Medellin, Colombia, ranked No. 88 and playing No. 2 for Tech, has a 7-4 mark this spring, while junior Juan Melian, the 2011 Southern Conference Player of the Year before transferring from Georgia Southern, has a 6-4 mark this spring at the No. 3 position.
Thorne continues to work to solidify the bottom of the Yellow Jackets’ singles order, and has gotten a boost from freshman Sebastian Lopez of Medellin, Colombia, who enrolled at Tech for spring semester and became eligible last week, posting a 3-2 mark at the No. 6 position. Another freshman, Eduardo Segura from Madrid, Spain, and senior Dusan Miljevic have gone 8-11 at the No. 4-5 positions.
After splitting up King and Spir, the naiton’s No. 2-ranked doubles team, has lost just once this spring, to Wisconsin, and are 9-1, including a win over Georgia’s top team. The No. 2 pairing of Melian and freshman Vikram Hundal is 4-5, and the No. 3 duo of Segura and senior Dusan Miljevic is 3-4.
