Sept. 23, 2011
Four of the highly-touted Vanderbilt freshman signing class played well at the Southern Intercollegiates, scoring 4-1 in the first day of play at the 44th edition of the event.
Suresh Eswaran played well, defeating his opponent, Kentucky’s Matt Davis, 6-4, 6-4. He then went on to defeat Liberty’s Jorge Azuero, 6-3, 6-3 in a round of 16.
“Suresh had a great first day,” said assistant coach Jamie Hunt, who traveled with the freshmen to Athens, Georgia for the event. “He played well in both the matches that he won. He has really shown great progress and is only starting to realize what he is capable of accomplishing with his game.”
Joe Dorn and Jeff Offerdahl also won their singles matches, with Dorn beating Eastern Kentucky’s Philip Janz 6-3,6-4, and Offerdahl defeating Trpimir Kujundzic from Virginia Tech 6-2, 6-7(7), 7-6(8).
Michael Retta lost his first match against Minnesota’s Eric Frueh, 7-5 and 6-2.
In dual play, Joe Dorn and Jeff Offerdahl paired up to defeat Maksim Levanovich and Hans Adrian Riseng from Stetson by a mark of 9-7 before losing to Florida’s Andrew Butz and Bob van Overbeek, 8-5.
Several of the doubles matches were moved to Saturday, including the next round for Eswaran and Retta, who received a bye in the first round of doubles.
“I thought today went very well,” said Hunt. “We went 4-1 overall and won some matches against good quality opponents. For the most part, all of the guys executed what we have been asking them to do very well. I really believe all the hard work they have put in is starting to show in their games. I’m excited for tomorrow.”
Play resumes in the morning for the second day of the classic.