Rain pushed play indoors on Day 2 of the main draw in Tulsa but that didn’t hurt Auburn’s Marko Krickovic as the qualifer knocked off the #1 seed Quentin Monaghan (Notre Dame) 1-6, 7-5, 7-5. Monaghan cruised to a 6-1 opening set but Krickovic turned it around in the 2nd set and went up 5-2. Krickovic got broke serving for the set up 5-2 and 5-4 but then he broke Monaghan to go up 6-5 and finally got a service hold to take the set 7-5. The 3rd set stayed on serve until Krickovic broke for a 4-3 lead and then he consolidated the break with a hold for 5-3. Monaghan would come back from 0-40 down on his serve to hold for 5-4 and then he’d go up 0-40 on the Krickovic serve before breaking from 30-40 to even the match at 5-5. Krickovic would break back on the 40-40 deciding point by clubbing a Monaghan second serve and then finishing at the net with an overhead. Krickovic didn’t fool around on his next service game and held quickly at love to finish off the upset win.
There were only 3 matches played outdoors after the rain cleared out and one of those involved the #2 seed Nicolas Alvarez (Duke) as he met Illinois sophomore Aron Hiltzik. Hiltzik jumped out to the early break lead in the 1st before Alvarez got it back on serve. Hiltzik would break Alvarez again to go up 6-5 and would then serve out the opening set to go up 7-5. The 2nd set followed the same path with Hiltzik breaking Alvarez to go up 6-5 then Hiltzik held from 40-15 to seal the 7-5, 7-5 upset win.
#46 @AronHiltzik upsets #7 Alvarez (Duke) in straight sets to reach R16 at ITA All-American Championships! #ILLINI pic.twitter.com/BzvBsCeZgw
Illini M Tennis (@IlliniMTennis) October 9, 2015
The most lopsided score of the day involved the #6 seed Roberto Cid (South Florida) but unfortunately for Cid he was on the losing end as Northwestern qualifier Konrad Zieba rolled to a 6-1, 6-2 win. Zieba is now 5-0 on the week and he has yet to drop a set.
San Diego’s Uros Petronijevic won a back and forth match against the #8 seed Georgia’s Wayne Montgomery. Petronijevic jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the opening set before Montgomery rallied to force a tiebreak. Petronijevic got the early mini-break and held on to take the set 7-6(5). Montgomery jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the 2nd set and would hold on to that 1 break advantage to close out the set 6-3. Petronijevic would turn the script in the 3rd set and yes jump out to a 3-0 lead. Montgomery would then take the next 3 games to even it at 3-3 but Petronijevic would respond with a hold, a break, and then a hold from 40-30 to close out the 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-3 upset over Montgomery.
Ohio State’s Hugo Di Feo looked like he was in big trouble after falling behind Denver’s Diogo Rocha 6-3, 4-1 but Di Feo turned things around and one hour later he’d be sitting in the winner’s circle with an improbable 3-6, 7-6(3) 6-0 win. The shots that Di Feo missed early on were clipping the lines and the shots that Rocha landed started missing. After Rocha dropped the 2nd set tiebreak he faded quickly in the 3rd with Di Feo closing the set out in about 25 minutes.
The biggest comeback of the day belonged to Florida’s State Benjamin Lock after the Seminoles senior rallied from 4-1 down in the 3rd set to defeat Oklahoma’s Alex Ghilea 6-1, 1-6, 7-5. Ghilea served for the match up 5-4, 40-15 but Lock fought off all 3 match points then followed that up with a hold and then broke again to close it out.
Comments from FSU’s recap:
“It was a tough match all round, Lock said. “I thought that I outplayed him in the first set. Credit to him in the second set, he came back really strong. The third set was a fight and I just tried to keep my intensity high and keep doing the right thing. When I was down match points I stayed in the moment and focused on the small details in every shot. In the end it paid off and I’m really happy about this win.
The only other guy to rally from a 3rd set deficit was Cal’s Florian Lakat. The recent Mississippi State transfer trailed Georgia’s Tech’s Christopher Eubanks 3-1 in the 3rd but Lakat won 5 of the next 6 games including a break of the Eubanks serve at love to clinch the match.
Teams that had multiple guys playing today:
Ohio State 2-0 (Diaz/Di Feo)
Cal 2-0 (Goransson/Lakat)
USC 1-1 (Crystal – W; De Vroome – L)
San Diego 1-1 (Petronijevic – W; Angus – L)
Texas A&M 1-1 (Vinsant – W; Rinderknech – L)
Georgia 0-2 (Montgomery/Duncan)
Denver 0-2 (Rocha/Craig)
Qualifiers went 3-3 on the day with Auburn’s Marko Krickovic, Northwestern’s Konrad Zieba, and Ohio State’s Hugo Di Feo each winning while Georgia’s Walker Duncan, San Diego’s Jordan Angus, and USC’s Max De Vroome each came up short.
Guys with the higher UTR went 12-4
All-American 2nd Round Results:
Shane Vinsant (aTm) def. Naoki Takeda (AZ) 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-1
Florian Lakat (Cal) def. [9-16] Christopher Eubanks (GT) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4
[Q] Hugo Di Feo (Ohio St) def. Diogo Rocha (Denver) 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-0
[4] Dominik Koepfer (Tulane) def. Matic Spec (MN) 6-3, 6-3
Chris Diaz (Ohio St) def. [9-16] Or Ram-Harel (Tulsa) 7-5, 6-1
Uros Petronijevic (SD) def. [8] Wayne Montgomery (UGA) 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-3
[9-16] Andre Goransson (Cal) def. [Q] Max De Vroome (USC) 7-5, 6-2
Aron Hiltzik (ILL) def. [2] Nicolas Alvarez (Duke) 7-5, 7-5
Round of 16:
Chris Diaz (Ohio St) vs. Uros Petronijevic (San Diego)
[9-16] Andre Goransson (Cal) vs. Aron Hiltzik (Illinois)
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