National Indoor Intercollegiate Finals Are Set

Both of the top seeds from Ohio State pushed one step closer to singles championships but they’ll have experienced seniors on the oppostie side of the net on Sunday morning. Ohio State junior Mikael Torpegaard cruised past a pair of opponents on Friday but there’d be no cruising in the semifinals against Mississippi State sophomore Nuno Borges. Torpegaard broke Borges to start the match and held for 2-0 but Borges broke back and held to even it at 2-2. Torpegaard broke right back and held again for 4-2 and then a few games later served out the set from 40/15 to take it 6-4. 

Borges fought off a pair of break points to start the second set and then broke Torpegaard to take the early 2-0 lead. Just as Torpegaard did in the first set, he broke back after getting broke and then held to even it at 2-2. It’d be all holds the rest of the set and then Borges raced out to a 6-1 lead in the tiebreak. Torpegaard managed to come back and even it at 6-6 but Borges got the next point on his serve and then the following point on Torpegaard’s serve to finally close out the tiebreak 8-6. 

Torpegaard hadn’t dropped a set in his previous three matches so it was going to be interesting to see how he responded to some adversity.  Torpegaard answered the question pretty quickly because after a quick hold to start the final set he broke Borges for the fourth time on the day to extend the lead to 2-0. The rest of the set went pretty quickly with Torpegaard only dropping nine points in route to a 6-0 final set.

The other semifinal matched up the two tallest guys in the field as the 6 foot 8 inch Mike Redlicki (Arkansas) took on the 6 foot 7 inch Chris Eubanks (Georgia Tech). The Yellow Jacket junior struck first by breaking Redlicki to go ahead 3-2 in the first and after not being broke at all in two matches yesterday he had to like his chances to close out the set. Eubanks would lead 5-3 but Redlicki held, broke Eubanks at love, and held again to take a 6-5 lead. Eubanks held to force a tiebreak and he would take the first point of the tiebreak but after that it was all Redlicki as the Razorback senior would reel off seven straight points to take it 7-1.

The second set was all holds with Redlicki not facing a single break point while Eubanks fought off the four that he faced. The second set tiebreak was all about streaks. Redlicki won the first two points to go ahead *2-0, Eubanks took the next two to even it at 2-2, Redlicki took the next three to go up 5-2*, Eubanks took the next two on his serve to make it *5-4, then Redlicki won the final two points on his serve to win it 7-4. 

Redlicki is the first Razorback to advance to the National Indoor Intercollegiate singles final since 2001 and will be seeking the school’s third overall title.