KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Vanderbilt men’s tennis team concluded the first day of the 2013 USTA/ITA Ohio Valley Regionals guaranteeing a spot in Sunday’s doubles quarterfinal action. Suresh Eswaran and Kris Yee won all three of their doubles matches to advance to the quarters, and all three Vandy singles players won advancing on to Saturday.
“Overall it was a good day,” said men’s tennis head coach Ian Duvenhage. “We talked in the beginning of the year about executing in the three facets of the game and I’m still only seeing that sometimes. We played well enough to win today and I’m happy about that but I’d still like to see us execute more.”
Friday started off with three round of doubles from the Goodfriend Tennis Center at the University of Tennessee. Both Commodore doubles teams to play in the opening round, Anton Kovrigin and Jeffrey Offerdahl, and Suresh Eswaran and Kris Yee, won their matches 8-4.
In second round doubles action only Eswaran and Yee would come out victorious, knocking off Tennessee Tech, 8-4, to advance to the round of 16. Kovrigin and Offerdahl battled but were unable to upset the fifth-seeded Louisville team, falling 8-5. Following their first round bye, Rhys Johnson and Ryan Smith fell to Purdue, 8-5.
In the round of 16, Eswaran and Yee kept their winning ways going knocking off Wright State, 8-4. The duo will now advance to Sunday’s quarterfinals and face a tough Louisville team who upset the second-seeded Kentucky team in the round of 16.
“Suresh and Kris did a great job today, winning all three of their matches,” said Duvenhage. “If we gave out a game ball it would probably be to Kris. He does a great job making his opponents work for points. We saw that today from him and it payed off it each match.”
Smith, Eswaran and Johnson were the only three Vandy players to participate in opening round singles action on Friday.
Smith won his match over Nicholas Mitric of Murray, 6-0, 6-2, easily advancing to Saturday’s second round.
Eswaran who won all three of his doubles matches earlier in the day, pulled out the 6-3, 7-6 (4) win over Brandon Woods of Butler.
Johnson knocked off Austin Smith of Ball State, 6-2, 6-1. He will face sixth-seeded Beck Pennington of Kentucky on Saturday.
Saturday will see three rounds of singles action from the Goodfriend Tennis Center. Doubles will pick up again on Sunday.
Friday’s Results
Doubles – First Round
Kovrigin/Offerdahl (Vandy) def. Arovin/Esteban (TTU): 8-4
Eswaran/Yee (Vandy) def. Elliott/Leonard (Ball State): 8-4
Doubles- Second Round
Gornet/Wagner (Louisville) def. Kovrigin/Offerdahl (Vandy): 8-5
Eswaran/Yee (Vandy) def. Eremeev/Tarasov (TTU): 8-4
Medinilla/Tatarczyk (Purdue) def. Johnson/Smith (Vandy): 8-5
Doubles – Third Round
Eswaran/Yee (Vandy) def. Joblin/Pineda (WSU): 8-4
Singles – First Round
Ryan Smith def. Nicholas Mitric (Murray): 6-0, 6-2
Suresh Eswaran def. Brandon Woods (Butler): 6-3, 7-6 (4)
Rhys Johnson def. Austin Smith (Ball State): 6-2, 6-1
