Jan. 13, 2013
Fort Myers, Fla. – Juan Spir and Juan Melian won their singles matches Saturday to help Georgia Tech split eight singles matches with NC State, while Spir and Hundal captured another doubles win to help the Yellow Jackets split their doubles matches with Florida at the Illini Open.
Spir and Hundal, the USTA/ITA Southeast Regional champions in the fall, improved to 10-1 with an 8-5 victory over Florent Diep and Michael Alford of Florida. Freshman Anish Sharma and Colin Edwards picked up the other Tech doubles win, 8-6 over a split team of Illinois’ Stephen Hoh and Florida’s Luke Johnson.
“We got some tough doubles matches in today against Florida,” said Tech coach Kenny Thorne. “They served very well in all their matches, and we were down a break in all but one match. Vikram and Juan stayed very poised and came back and won but number 2 and number 3 doubles couldn’t work their way back in. We are getting tougher down here. If we play at a high level both mentally and with our execution then we are going to win.”
Spir and Melian, Tech’s two seniors and likely the top two players in the Tech singles lineup when dual matches begin, both captured singles victories against NC State. Spir, the Yellow Jacket All-American from Medellin, Colombia, rallied from a first-set loss in a tiebreaker to down Robbie Mudge, 6-7, 6-4, 6-3. Melian, from Las Palmas, Spain, took a straight-set victory over Dave Thomson, 6-4, 6-4.
Sophomore Eduardo Segura beat Sam Webber in straight sets, outlasting the Wolfpack player in a 15-13 tiebreaker in the opening set, and Sharma took a straight-set win over Rafael Paez for the other two Tech singles victories.
“Juan Melian fought his way back from being down 4-0 in the second to win 6-4. I love seeing that composure,” said Thorne. “Garrett Gordon was down a set and 4-0 and came back to push the match to a third set. He lost a tough 6-4 in the third but got better. Eddie (Segura) won an incredible 15-13 tiebreak in the first and closed out a good mentally tough straight-set win. We have our toughest day ahead of us tomorrow. It will be a good opportunity to lift our games and compete at the level we want to play this year.
The Jackets will play doubles with Illinois and singles against Florida Sunday to close out the weekend schedule.
ILLINI OPEN - Fort Myers, Fla.Day 2 Results
Doubles Bob Van Overbeek /Stephan Piro (Florida) def. Eduardo Segura/Garrett Gordon, 8-4 Billy Federhofer & Gordon Watson (Florida) def. Juan Melian/Nathan Rakitt, 8-2 Vikram Hundal/Juan Spir def. Florent Diep/Michael Alford (Florida), 8-5 Anish Sharma/Colin Edwards def. Stephen Hoh (Illinois)/Luke Johnson (Florida), 8-6
Singles Juan Spir def. Robbie Mudge (NC State), 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-3 Juan Melian def. Dave Thomson (NC State), 6-4, 6-4 Austin Powell (NC State) def. Vikram Hundal, 6-4, 6-1 Eduardo Segura def. Sean Webber (NC State), 7-6 (15-13). 6-4 Thomas Weigel (NC State) def. Nathan Rakitt, 6-1, 7-6 (9-7) Simon Norenius (NC State) def. Garrett Gordon, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 Anish Sharma def. Rafael Paez (NC State), 7-6, 6-3 Trey Carter (NC State) def. Colin Edwards, 6-0, 6-2
