May 24, 2013
Urbana, Ill. – Georgia Tech’s doubles team of Juan Spir and Vikram Hundal won their second-round match in the NCAA Doubles Championship Friday, knocking off a Texas A&M team in straight set at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex/Atkins Tennis Center in Urbana, Ill., hosted by the University of Illinois.
The Tech tandem, ranked 10th in the nation, knocked off the nation’s 8th-ranked team of Junior Ore and Jackson Withrow, 6-4, 7-5. They advance to Jonas Lutjen and Nik Scholtz of Mississippi, the nation’s 3rd-ranked team, in Saturday’s quarterfinal round at a time to be announced.
The victory makes Spir an ITA All-American for the third time, an automatic honor when a team reaches the NCAA quarterfinals, and Hundal for the first time.
“We fought well today against a solid Texas A&M team,” said Tech head coach Kenny Thorne. “We finally got a win against TAMU in a national tournament. They beat us in semis of NCAA tournament two years ago and beat us in semis of national indoors one season ago. This one was nice because it made Juan Spir a three-time All American and Vikram an All American for the first time. We are getting ready for a tough quarterfinal match tomorrow against a very good Ole Miss team.”
Spir is playing in the Doubles Championship for the third time, this time with a different partner. Spir and Hundal, a sophomore from Alpharetta, Ga., joined forces in the fall to play in the USTA/ITA Southeast Regional and won the title the first time they played together competitively. They went on to win the consolation draw at the USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships.
They have gone 13-1 in tournament play this year, and were 7-3 at the top of Tech’s doubles lineup in dual matches before Hundal sustained a knee injury at the end of February. Ranked third in the ITA national rankings at the time, they are now 20-5 overall.
Spir is finishing up a career in which he has become the most accomplished doubles player in Tech history. He partnered with Kevin King to win 75 matches in two-plus years before this season. Spir has been involved in a Tech-record 103 doubles victories in his career. He was 4-2 in NCAA doubles competition with King, reaching the semifinals in 2011. They are the only Tech team to reach the semifinals of the NCAA Championship
