Never Fails to be a Dramatic Day in NYC; ITA Indoor Day 1 Recap

The ITA Indoor Intercollegiate Championships kicked off from the National Tennis Center Thursday morning with doubles. The surprising results started right away in the first round as Columbia's Max Schnur and Ashok Narayana took out Texas A&M's Junior Ore and Jackson Withrow 8-3. However the Columbia duo backed up their first win with another convincing victory as they beat UNCW's Rafael Aita and Sam Williams 8-2. In the next round, they will play the Super Bowl (small school championships) Champions from Embry-Riddle Simon Felix and Deni Zmak. The Embry-Riddle team got to the quarterfinals by stunning the 3 seeds from UCLA Mackenzie McDonald and Marcos Giron, who had an impressive fall by being runner-ups at the ITA All-American and winning an ITF Futures event. The top seeded team, Tennessee's Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese, took care of business in the second round defeated the Virginia Tech team of Bjerrhus and Contini 8-1. They will play Liberty's Jorge Azuero and Shea Thomas in the quarterfinals. The 4 seeds from Illinois, Tim Kopinski and Ross Guignon advanced to the quarterfinals and will play Drake's Ravi Patel and Robin Goodman. The Drake team knocked off Ohio State's Peter Kobelt and Kevin Metka in the 2nd round 8-6. The 2 seed from Texas, Lloyd Glasspool and Soren Hess-Olsen, defeated a tough team in Max de Vroome and Eric Johnson from USC 8-4 they will play the Florida State team of  Benjamin Lock and Marco Nunez (who won two rounds to get to the quarterfinals). Junior Ore and Jackson Withrow will play on Friday against Florida's Gordon Watson and Elliot Orkin for the Doubles 1st Round Consolation Championship. In the 2nd Round Consolation, UCLA's Mackenzie McDonald and Marcos Giron are the 1 seeds and Ohio State's Peter Kobelt and Kevin Metka are the 2 seeds.

Doubles Quarterfinals (To be played Friday):
Libietis/Reese, Tennessee (1) vs. Azuero/Thomas, Liberty
Guignon/Kopinski, Illinois (4) vs. Patel/Goodman, Drake
Felix/Zmak, Embry-Riddle vs. Schnur/Narayana, Columbia
Glasspool/Hess-Olsen, Texas (2) vs. Lock/Nunez, Florida State

The ITA All-American Runner-Up from Oklahoma, Guillermo Alcorta, had a strong start to the tournament by defeating USC's Yannick Hanfmann 6-1, 6-4. After losing to Peter Kobelt in the Midwest Regional, Notre Dame's Greg Andrews received an At-Large bid and took full advantage of that, beating the 4 seed Austin Smith (Georgia) in three sets in the first round. Another seed almost went down in the first round, as Vanderbilt's Gonzales Austin (the 5 seed) survived by beating Denver's Henry Craig in 3 sets as well. After receiving a wildcard in, Oklahoma's Andrew Harris beat Embry-Riddle's Deni Zmak in the longest match of the day winning 7-6, 6-7, 7-5. Still not a bad day for the NAIA Fall Champion. As I noted on my preview, I did not think Baylor's Patrick Pradella was worthy of the top seeding, as he backed up my claim by falling to Tennessee's Mikelis Libietis 7-6, 6-4 (who was the preseason number 1, but yet didn't get a seed here). Libietis saved a set point in the first set as well, and he will take on USC's Ray Sarmiento in the next round. Sarmiento played a very solid match and beat Ohio State's Peter Kobelt 6-2, 6-3. Kobelt has now lost the first round of both majors this year (tough to see this being a big Ohio State fan). After a solid fall on the pro tour, winning 3 ITF Futures titles (2 in singles, 1 in doubles) UCLA's Marcos Giron is now out of both main draws, as he fell to a very talented player in Illinois' Jared Hiltzik. I think Hiltzik was under seeded but nonetheless Hiltzik came out and won in 3 sets. Finally, the 7 seed, Winston Lin of Columbia, came out and blanked Pepperdine's Alex Sarkissian 6-0, 6-2 in front of a home crowd at the National Tennis Center. In the singles consolation, the seeds are 1. Patrick Pradella, Baylor 2. Austin Smith, Georgia 3. George Goldhoff, Texas 4. Nik Sholtz, Ole Miss. I get that Kobelt hasn't had the best go at it during the majors this year, but he's a player than can beat anyone in the nation if he plays well and feel he's not getting enough respect since he didn't get seeded in the consolation. I also think Giron got shafted in a seed. But I do feel all 4 seeds do have the capability of playing a good tournament as well, so we will see how it turns out. A big tip of the hat to Emory-Riddle's Deni Zmak for pairing up with partner to beat Giron-McDonald in doubles and almost beat Andrew Harris in singles. I think his consolation matchup with Marcos Giron tomorrow can be a good one.   

Singles Round of 16 (To be played Friday):
Mikelis Libietis, Tennessee vs. Ray Sarmiento, USC
Joran Vliegan, Eastern Carolina  vs. Gonzales Austin, Vanderbilt (5)
Greg Andrews, Notre Dame vs. Andrew Harris, Oklahoma
Jared Hiltzik, Illinois (8) vs. Campbell Johnson, California
Winston Lin, Columbia vs. Brett Clark, North Carolina
Axel Alvarez, Oklahoma vs. Julian Lenz, Baylor (3)
Carlos Lopez Villa, Old Dominion vs. Clay Thompson, UCLA (6)
Guillermo Alcorta, Oklahoma (2) vs. Nathan Pasha, Georgia