Jan. 10, 2009
Key Biscayne, Fla. – The Georgia Tech men’s tennis team won five doubles and five singles matches Saturday at the Key Biscayne Invitational. In the second day of the tournament, the Yellow Jackets played singles against No. 23 Alabama, while the doubles teams took on No. 16 Michigan and No. 2 Texas.
“To win five of eight singles matches against a top-25 Alabama team in January is a good sign.” Tech head coach Kenny Thorne said. “I am very proud of the guys and the energy they came out with in doubles against Michigan. We came in today looking to get the doubles going and were able to do that.”
In doubles play, the Jackets began the day by sweeping Michigan. Sophomores Miguel Muguruza and Ryan Smith led things off with an 8-4 win against Mike Sroczynski and Peter Aarts. Sophomore Guillermo Gomez took court next with classmate Eliot Potvin and defeated Andrew Mazlin and Chris Madden, 8-5. The third pair up for Tech was freshman Kevin King and Doug Kenny and they took down George Navas and Drew Daniel, 8-2, while Dusan Miljevic and Austin Roebuck downed Matt Parks and Mike DePietro 8-4 to complete the sweep.
Texas won three of the four doubles matches, but the Jackets did not go down without a fight. Miljevic and Roebuck defeated the Longhorns’ Rook Schellenberg and Jonah Kane-West 8-6 in the fourth and final match. In the No. 1 spot, Muguruza and Smith lost a hard-fought 9-8 battle in the sixth tie-breaker to Josh Zavala and Dimitar Kutrovsky.
“Texas did not lose a doubles point at all during the NCAA Tournament last year so I am pleased with some of the great battles,” Thorne added. “There are still some things we need to work on, but this was a good day and now we need to focus on tomorrow’s singles matches against a good Michigan team.”
The Jackets were victorious in five of the eight singles matches against Alabama as Gomez, King, Potvin, Smith and Roebuck picked up wins.
The three-day event concludes Sunday morning when Tech and Michigan will battle in singles action.
Singles:
Gomez (GT) def. Myneni (UA) 6-4, 6-1
King (GT) def. Mertz (UA) 6-1, 6-3
Potvin (GT) def. Lewis (UA) 7-6 (1), 6-1
Thompson (UA) def. Miljevic (GT) 6-3, 6-4
Buikema (UA) def. Muguruza (GT) 6-2, 6-4
Smith (GT) def. Jung (UA) 7-5, 3-6, 6-4
Roebuck (GT) def. Yassine (UA) 6-1, 4-6, 7-5
Felsenthal (UA) def. Kenny (GT) 4-6, 6-2, 6-2
Doubles:
Muguruza/Smith (GT) def. Sroczynski and Aarts (UM) 8-4
Gomez/Potvin (GT) def. Mazlin and Madden (UM) 8-5
King/Kenny (GT) def. Navas and Daniel (UM) 8-2
Robuck/Miljevic (GT) def. Parks and DePietro (UM) 8-4
Zavala and Kutrovsky (UT) def. Muguruza/Smith (GT) 9-8 (6)
Reyes Varela and Sajous (UT) def. Gomez/Potvin (GT) 8-5
Wiegand and Corrie (UT) def. King/Kenny (GT 8-2
Miljevic and Roebuck (GT) def. Schellenberg and Kane-West (UT) 8-6
