FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. – It was a very successful first day in Flushing, NY for the men’s tennis team as Gonzales Austin and Rhys Johnson compete at the Indoor National Championships. Austin advances to the round of 16 after a monumental win over the No. 1 player in the country. Success continued in doubles for the `Dores with the No. 22 tandem of Johnson and Austin moving on to compete on Friday in tournament quarterfinals.
“It was a very good day for us,” said Vanderbilt head coach Ian Duvenhage. AJ (Austin) played extremely well for us this morning…probably best that I’ve seen him play. He was really happy with his performance. They played really well in doubles as well. The team that played was a team they’d played before and you could tell they wanted to get even with us. I was especially happy for Rhys (Johnson) because he really played very well in the second set with some great returns. So it was a good day and we hope to get some food and sleep and have another great day tomorrow.”
Of the eight seeds in the singles tournament, five were knocked out of title contention. Vanderbilt’s No. 9 Austin helped the trend with his victory over the No. 1 player in the country and No. 4 seed out of Baylor, Julian Lenz. The 6-4, 6-4 victory is the Miami, Fla. native’s ninth of the Fall, with only three losses to his name. Tomorrow the senior faces No. 12 Austin Smith out of fellow SEC conference school Georgia at 10:30 a.m. ET.
In the doubles department the No. 3 seeded Commodore duo enjoyed a bye into the round of 16. The first year pairing squared off against Ohio State’s Metka and Steinbach for the second time this Fall. In their first match Vandy won 7-6, 6-1 at the ITA All-Americans. Thursday afternoon the `Dores made quick work of the competition, winning 6-3, 6-1.
Tomorrow the No. 22 ranked team competes against Denver’s No. 18 Henry Craig and Alex Gasson at 4 p.m. ET. All matches take place at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
