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ITA National Indoors showcases incredible college tennis
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Yale University is the home this year for the ITA National Indoors for the first time and this beautiful facility is showcasing some incredible college tennis.
There isn't any bad viewing at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center. When I arrived there were matches everywere and it was hard to decide where to go first. I get to see a lot of Dennis Nevolo back at the University of Illinois, but the buzz was heard everywhere about his match with Virginia's Michael Shabaz, so I headed over to that court. And I wasn't disappointed.
Unseeded Shabaz, who had eliminated the eighth-seeded Eric Quigley of Kentucky in the first round (in a third set tiebreaker), had narrowly taken the first set off Nevolo. The second was a display of power-hitting that could have been seen in the pros. The shots were beautiful, but it was Michael Shabaz's serve that was the winner. Had the accuracy been as on as the speed, he would have easily walked away with the match because there was no returning it when it was on. Dennis Nevolo stuck through it with some great shots of his own until the very end of this tiebreak-ending crowd-pleaser.
Michael Shabaz went on to keep the power game going through a quarterfinal upset of second-seeded Olekesandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State with the same 6-4,7-6 score. That sets him up for a semifinal with unseeded Guillermo Gomez of Georgia Tech, who upset No. 3 Robert Farah of Southern California, 3-6,6-1,6-4, before defeating Wisconsin's Moritz Baumann in straight sets.
On the women's side, it hasn't been very difficult for Georgia Tech's Irina Falconi, who lost only four games while eliminating Josipa Bek of Clemson and Venise Chan (8) of Washington. I saw a bit of the latter and Falconi was near-perfect. The other women's match I got to watch was seventh-seeded Denise Dy of Washington and Stanford's Hilary Barte, a great showing of women's college tennis full of long points. Dy won that one 6-4,5-7,7-5, and then went on to take another three-setter over Anastasia Petukhoua of Fresno State. She will face No. 4 Jana Juricova of California in the semis.
There is no chance of anyone sweeping this year's ITA Indoors as none of the singles players are left in doubles. The men's semifinal will be the unseeded teams of Texas A&M's Jeff Dadamo & Austin Krajicek vs. Duke's Reid Carleton & Henrique Cunha and third-seeded Bradley Klahn & Ryan Thacher of Stanford vs. Boris Conkic & Rhyne Williams of Tennessee in the men. The women's doubles semifinals will consist of top-seeded Natalie Pluskota & Caitlin Whoriskey of Tennessee (the Riviera All American Winners) vs. Gabriella Meija & Laura Vallverdu of Miami and No. 4 Andrea Remynse & Yasmin Schnack of UCLA vs. No. 2 Hilary Barte & Lindsay Burdette of Stanford.
The possibility of ITA All American winners repeating at the ITA Indoors remains alive with Irina Falconi and Tennessee's JP Smith still in contention. I can't find a record of another time this was ever accomplished with both winners. Before that happens, though, top-seeded Smith will need to get by Southern California's Steve Johnson, the fifth seed, and second-seeded Falconi will face unseeded Lenka Broosova of Baylor.
Daily stories are available on Zoo Tennis and releases and full results can be found at ITA Tennis. Look for a wrap-up on College Tennis Examiner next week.
Above photo: Michael Shabaz at the U.S. Open this year. Photo by Marcia Frost.
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