Stanford Squeezes Past Florida in First Round at ITA Men's Indoor
©Colette Lewis 2009--
Chicago, IL--
It took four matches, but we finally got a nail-biter at the ITA Men's Team Indoor. No. 7 Florida and No. 11 Stanford went back and forth until it all came down to No. 6 singles, with Blake Muller besting Eric Corace 4-6, 7-6, 6-3.
Florida took the doubles point, with a 8-6 win at No. 3. At the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles positions, both Florida, at No. 1, and Stanford at No. 2, served for the match, but neither could hold, with both going to tiebreakers. Florida's Joey Burkhardt and Antoine Benneteau rendered the tiebreaker at No. 2 moot when they prevailed over Richard Wire and Muller at No. 1.
Stanford won the first two singles to finish, with Ryan Thacher at No. 4 and Alex Clayton at No. 1 taking straight set wins. Florida pulled even when Alex Lacroix beat Bradley Klahn in three sets, and the Gators took the lead when Benneteau took out Matt Bruch at No. 3. Stanford then tied it up with Richard Wire downing Jeff Dadamo in three sets, leaving the final point in the hands of Muller and Corace. I arrived at the distant court 14 with the score at 2-2 in the third, and was told there had already been two breaks of serve. Two more breaks and it was 3-3, then Corace was broken to give Muller the 4-3 lead. When Muller held in the next game, serving well, he had established a real advantage, and Corace was unable to make Muller hold again, dropping serve to put Stanford in the quarterfinals.
For complete results, see the ITA results page.
2 comments:
Kudos to Illinois for at least providing semi-competent live scoring. The women's tournament is absymal in this regard. No live scoring at all and the live blog is inconsistent, 15 minutes between updates and incorrect scores. Why is Wisconsin hosting if they can't at least provide adequate scoring updates? The setup for that tournament is also odd, with all teams playing, but only 3 matches at a time. I don't get it. Why isn't it played the same as the men?
Florida is playing without 2 of their top 6. Any one have any idea on the severity of the injuries to Hochwalt and Hamui? With those two added to the mix Florida probably wins this match.
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