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TULSA, Okla. - After stunning the college tennis world by knocking
off the 2009 Campbell/ITA National Player of the Year and top seed in
yesterday's first round action, Kentucky's Eric Quigley, a qualifier who
had to win three straight matches to secure a spot in the main draw
continued his march through the D'Novo/ITA Men's All-American
Championships, picking up two more top 30 wins to advance to tomorrow's
quarterfinals.
In Quigley's first match of the day against Baylor's Jordan Rux, the
27th-ranked player in the Campbell/ITA College Preseason Rankings, he
was able to jump on Rux early, who was unable to recover against the
70th-ranked Quigley, losing 7-5, 6-2.
Even after knocking off the tournament's top seed, it was Quigley's
third-round match that was perhaps his most impressive. Ninth-seeded
Sanam Singh of Virginia, the 2008 ITA/USTA National Summer Singles
Champion recorded just two points in a crushing 6-1, 6-1 straight set
victory by Quigley.
Earlier in the day, Quigley and doubles partner Brad Cox won their
second round match to advance to the quarterfinals of the doubles main
draw. The No. 24 Wildcats dominated Erik Kreutzer and Thomas Nolan of
Boston College 8-1 to move on.
The win sets up a rematch of Quigley and singles No. 1 Nedovyesov on the
doubles court. The UK duo battles Nedovyesov and partner Aleksey
Bessonov fresh off the Cowboy tandem's upset of top-seeded team of Jamie
Hunt and Nate Schnugg of Georgia.
Once again, today's singles matches saw upsets raining down left and
right, in a fitting fashion to the weather that has hit Tulsa, moving
many of the matches indoors. In fact, of the eight quarterfinalists that
remain in the singles draw, only two seeded players remain.
The highest ranked seed still standing is second-ranked John-Patrick
Smith of Tennessee, who advanced to the 2008 NCAA Singles Championship
as a Freshman. Smith is also still a participant in doubles action with
teammate Boris Conkic, who took out the No. 2 doubles team of Robert
Farah and Steve Johnson of USC in yesterday's first round.
Although the pair was unable to combine forces for a first-round doubles
win, both Trojans picked up singles wins on day one to advance. Farah
advanced with victories over Auburn's Alex Stamchev and Ionut Beleleu of
Oklahoma. Johnson picked up a second round win over Wisconsin's Moritz
Baumann followed by a highly-contested win over No. 15 Bradley Klahn of
Stanford, 6-4, 5-7, 7-5.
After losing Arnau Brugues, last year's No. 2-ranked player in the
country, it was assumed that Tulsa would have a tough time replacing him
this year. However, sophomore Ashley Watling has stepped up to the
challenge and provided the local fans with some exciting play, advancing
to the quarterfinals, where he will attempt to knock off Farah, the 2007
ITA All-American Runner-Up.
"Last year he was playing the four spot in our lineup because he was in
his first semester here," Head Coach Vince Westbrook said. "We knew that
when we landed him that he was going to be one of the cornerstones of
the program moving forward, and he's shown that with his run here."
"I think I might have played that match with a blindfold on," Watling
said. "That was one of the best matches I have played in a very long
time. I was hoping to win one round coming into the tournament with 64
of the best players in college tennis. Now I'm in the quarterfinals and
I couldn't have dreamed that."
Main Draw quarterfinal singles begin at 11 a.m., followed by another
round of singles and doubles on Saturday at the Michael D. Case Tennis
Center. Admission to the tournament is free
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