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Ohio State's wild card
team of Christina Keesey and Angela Dipastina upset
the defending champions Megan Moulton-Levy and
Katarina Zoricic of WIlliam & Mary by a score of 9-7
in first round action.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Top seeds had
some disappointing results in opening round play
Thursday at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association
(ITA) National Indoor Championships hosted by Ohio
State at the Racquet Club of Columbus.
Top seeds
and defending champions Katarina Zoricic and Megan
Moulton-Levy of William & Mary were beat by host
Ohio State's wild card team of Christina Keesey and
Angela Dipastina, by a score of 9-7 in the opening
round of women's doubles. And the No. 2 seeded
Tennessee team of Caitlin Whoriskey and Zsofia Zubor
lost to Marshall's Kellie Schmitt and Karolina Soor,
8-5. On the men’'s side, No.1 pair Somdev Devvarman
and Treat Huey of Virginia had a close call in their
first round match against Daniel Vallverdu and Carl
Sundberg of Miami, but pulled through, winning
9-8(3). They were the only men’'s seed to survive,
as the Nos. 2, 3, and 4 teams were all upset.
Devvarman
and Huey captured the doubles title at the Polo
Ralph Lauren All-American Championships in Tulsa
last month and are 9-0 together this season and
Friday’'s quarterfinal appearance will be their
third in a national tournament. Last season they
reached the quarters at the 2006 All-American and
semifinals at the 2007 NCAA tournament. Devvarman
also notched an opening round victory in singles,
beating Andrei Saescu from Oklahoma, 6-3, 6-1. The
No. 1 seed, he captured the 2007 NCAA singles title
and reached the ‘06 NCAA final. In 2008 he will try
to become the first player since Northwestern’s
Marty Riessen did from 1962-64 to reach three
straight NCAA singles finals.
It was not a
good day for the top seeds on the men’s side, as
Devvarman and No.4 Greg Ouellette from Florida were
the only two seeded players to survive the first
round. Second-seeded Travis Helgeson from Georgia,
No.3 Robert Farah from USC, No. 5 Bryan Koniecko
from Ohio State, No. 6 Erling Tveit from
Mississippi, No.7 Luke Shields from Boise State, and
No.8 Andre Begemann from Pepperdine all suffered
first round upsets.
On the
women’s side, No.1 seed Megan Falcon of LSU also
cruised to a first round win, beating Cristina
Visico from California, 6-3, 6-0. Falcon is back on
track, after a rocky start to the fall season. As
the top seed at the Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American
Championships last month, she was upset by
Vanderbilt's Amanda Taylor in the opening round, but
rebounded to win the consolation draw. A junior from
Alameda, Calif., she reached the NCAA singles
semifinals last season and finished No. 2 in the
final ITA national rankings. This is her second
straight second round appearance at the ITA National
Indoor Championships.
Falcon will
have tough competition for the title, however, as
No. 2 seed Susie Babos from California also
advanced, beating Elena Gantcheva from UNLV, 6-2,
4-6, 6-4. The senior is looking to add to her
national title collection this week in Columbus.
Babos has collected national singles titles each of
the last three seasons. Her first round win on
Thursday improved her record to 25-5 in nine career
national tournament appearances. The ITA National
Indoor is the only national crown she has not won.
She reached the final as a freshman in 2004 but lost
to Miami’s Megan Bradley. Last year she entered the
event as the No. 1 seed but lost to North Carolina's
Jenna Long in the opening round.
All told,
seven of the top eight seeds in women’s singles
advanced to Friday's second round.
The 2007-08
collegiate tennis season’s first of three national
championship events for singles and doubles were the
ITA All-American Championships in October, followed
by this week’s ITA National Indoor Championships.
The NCAA Championships in May are the third (and not
administered by the ITA).
Play resumes
Friday morning with women's doubles quarterfinals
starting at 9 a.m. Live scoring updates for all
singles matches are available at
www.itatennis.com. Starting on Saturday there
will be video highlights and interviews via
www.thebraingame.net.
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