[17-32] San Diego (23-4) vs. [33-48] San Diego State (18-8) – Friday 1pm – #21 San Diego earned the automatic bid from the West Coast Conference after beating #39 Pepperdine 4-1 in the WCC Championship while #40 San Diego State got one of the last at-large bids after getting upset by Nevada in the Mountain West semifinals. These teams met just 4 weeks ago with San Diego winning 4-2 (box score below). SDSU split its last 6 matches though they’ve been trying to rotate guys in at #6 since Khachatryan went out. San Diego finished the regular season on a 15-match winning streak with 8 of those wins over ranked opponents.
Regular season meeting:
#18 San Diego 4, #37 San Diego State 2
April 8, 2015 at San Diego, Calif. (Aztec Tennis Center)
Singles competition
1. #46 Uros Petronijevic (USD) def. #105 Freddy Gelbrich (SDSU) 6-2, 6-2
2. #67 Filip Vittek (USD) def. Thorsten Bertsch (SDSU) 6-4, 6-2
3. Hendrik Jebens (SDSU) def. Jordan Angus (USD) 3-6, 6-2, 6-1
4. Romain Kalaydjian (USD) def. Marko Goles Babic (SDSU) 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (8-6), 6-3
5. Geoffrey Fosso (USD) vs. Milen Ianakiev (SDSU) 7-5, 5-7, 3-3, unfinished
6. Ciaran Fitzgerald (USD) def. Andranik Khachatryan (SDSU) 6-0, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4
Doubles competition
1. #60 Freddy Gelbrich/Hendrik Jebens (SDSU) def. #34 Jordan Angus/Filip Vittek (USD) 6-2
2. Thorsten Bertsch/Jonas Meinzer (SDSU) def. Uros Petronijevic/Romain Kalaydjian (USD) 6-2
3. Ciaran Fitzgerald/Geoffrey Fosso (USD) vs. Marko Goles Babic/Andranik Khachatryan (SDSU) 2-5,
Match Notes
San Diego State 15-6, 3-1 MW; National ranking #37
San Diego 17-4, 6-0 WCC; National ranking #18
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1); Singles (1,2,3,6,4)
Doubles Records: San Diego 21-6, San Diego State 16-9
UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: San Diego 80, San Diego State 79
Projected Singles Lineups
1. #56 Uros Petronijevic (USD 14.14) vs. #121 Freddy Gelbrich (SDSU 13.64)
2. #72 Filip Vittek (USD 13.58) vs. Hendrik Jebens (SDSU 13.44)
3. Jordan Angus (USD 13.79) vs. Marko Goles-Babic (SDSU 13.49)
4. Romain Kalaydjian (USD 12.92) vs. Thorsten Bertsch (SDSU 12.82)
5. Geoffrey Fosso (USD 12.94) vs. Milen Ianakiev (SDSU 13.14)
6. Ciaran Fitzgerald (USD 12.66) vs. Santiago Cevallos (SDSU 11.36)
#1 singles – Petronijevic finished the regular season on an 8-match winning streak and is 14-5 on the season while Gelbrich won 4 of his last 7 and went 15-6. Petronijevic won the first meeting easily and I’d be surprised if the result were different this time. Prediction: Petronijevic (USD) in 2.
#2 singles – Vittek went 18-3 on the year and won 8 of his last 9 while Jebens went 18-4 and had a 14-match winning streak going until he lost in the conference tournament to Nevada’s Ryan Andrada. Vittek beat Jebens 6-0, 6-1 a year ago though Jebens is playing much better this year. Prediction: DNF with Vittek (USD) leading.
#3 singles – Angus went 21-4 and won 14 of his last 15 with the lone loss coming against SDSU’s Hendrik Jebens while Goles-Babic went 18-3 but just 3-2 down the stretch. Prediction: DNF with Angus (USD) leading
#4 singles – Kalaydjian went 11-10 but he finished the year on a 5-match winning streak and he was ahead in the his last 3 matches which were all halted by a clinch while Bertsch went 9-9 and finished the year on a 6-match losing streak with most of the losses pretty lopsided. Prediction: Kalaydjian (USD) in 2
#5 singles – Fosso went 10-6 and won 2 of his last 3 with 3 other matches going unfinished while Ianakiev went 14-8 and finished on a 4-match winning streak. The first match between these two was tied in the 3rd set when USD clinched. Prediction: Ianakiev (SDSU) in 2.
#6 singles – Fitzgerald went 11-9 and had a 6-match winning streak snapped in the finale against Pepperdine’s Lautaro Pane while Cevallos only saw action in a handful of matches this year. Prediction: Fitzgerald (USD) in 2
I don’t see this one being as close as the first encounter and I look for San Diego to take the doubles point and then pick up singles wins from Petronijevic, Kalaydjian, and Fitzgerald. SDSU will pick up its lone point from Ianakiev at #5. Prediction: San Diego 4-1
Duke Regional
Ambler Tennis Stadium – Durham, NC
[10] Duke (22-6) vs. [49-64] South Carolina State (14-4) – Friday 1pm – #10 Duke got an at-large bid after falling to #13 North Carolina 4-3 in the ACC quarterfinals. South Carolina State made it to the finals of MEAC Championship but its match with Bethune-Cookman was cancelled by rain so they got the automatic bid since they won the regular season. SC State went 0-3 against ranked opponents getting shut out twice by #48 South Carolina and losing 5-2 to #57 Troy.
Doubles Records: Duke 20-8, South Carolina State 13-4
UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: Duke 84, South Carolina State 74
Projected Singles Lineups
1. #13 Nicolas Alvarez (DU 14.55) vs. Rodney Carey (SCSU 12.56)
2. #41 Jason Tahir (DU 14.08) vs. Martin Figura (SCSU 12.38)
3. #57 Raphael Hemmeler (DU 14.25) vs. Vladyslav Yanchenko (SCSU 12.40)
4. Bruno Semenzato (DU 13.93) vs. Soufiane Mouline (SCSU 12.25)
5. Chris Mengel (DU 13.69) vs. Stanislav Baco (SCSU 10.49)
6. TJ Pura (DU 13.37) vs. Jackub Vikek (SCSU 12.38)
Others that could play: Josh Levine (DU 12.78)
Duke’s #1 Nicolas Alvarez has been nursing a muscle injury so it wouldn’t surprise me if he sat this one out to give it 1 more day to heal. Duke will take the doubles point then get wins from Tahir, Hemmeler, and Mengel. Prediction: Duke 4-0
[17-32] Stanford (17-6) vs. [33-48] Tennessee (14-12) – Friday 10am – Both teams got at-large bids with #23 Stanford falling 4-3 to #8 USC in the Pac-12 Championship while #41 Tennessee was blanked by #7 Georgia in the SEC quarterfinals. Tennessee’s Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese are the defending NCAA Doubles Champions and they also have 2 ITA All-American Championships as well but they aren’t exactly going out with a bang with the duo just 12-7 this year in dual-match doubles play.
Doubles Records: Stanford 20-3, Tennessee 17-8
UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: Stanford 83, Tennessee 80
Projected Singles Lineups
1. #26 Tom Fawcett (STAN 14.47) vs. #14 Mikelis Libietis (UT 14.56)
2. #71 John Morrissey (STAN 14.03) vs. Hunter Reese (UT 13.39)
3. David Wilczynski (STAN 13.88) vs. Jack Schipanski (UT 13.13)
4. David Hsu (STAN 13.85) vs. Luis Valero (UT 13.11)
5. Robert Stineman (STAN 13.20) vs. Igor Smelyanski (UT 13.13)
6. Nolan Paige (STAN 13.33) vs. Jess Jones (UT 13.08)
Others who could play: Maciek Romanowicz (STAN 13.20), Andrew Dromsky (UT 12.12)
#1 singles – Fawcett went 14-5 and split his last 4 matches while Libietis went 17-1 and finished the year on a 6-match winning streak. Prediction: Libietis (UT) in 2
#2 singles – Morrissey went 16-6 and won 5 of his last 7 which included wins over Filip Bergevi, Roberto Quiroz, and Martin Redlicki while Reese went 7-12 though he did split his last 4. Prediction: Morrissey (ST) in 2
#3 singes – Wilczynski went 12-8 and lost 4 of his last 5 while Schipanski went 10-11 and dropped 6 of his last 7 with all but 1 in straight sets. Prediction: Wilczynski (ST) in 3.
#4 singles – Hsu went 12-4 but really came into his own late and finished on a 10-match winning streak while Valero went 11-8 and won 5 of his last 7. Prediction: Hsu (ST) in 2
#5 singles – Stineman went 9-5 but lost 4 of his last 5 while Smelyanski went 3-8 and dropped his last 2 in straight sets. Neither player is playing well at the moment so this one is a toss up. Prediction: DNF with Stineman (ST) leading late in the 2nd
#6 singles – Paige went 11-8 but dropped 4 of his last 6 while Jones went 6-7 and he lost his last 3 with 6 of his last 9 going unfinished due to the clinch. Prediction: DNF with Paige (ST) leading in the 3rd
Tennessee’s only shot in this one is to take the doubles point and then scrape out wins at 1, 3, and 6 but I think Stanford takes the doubles point for the 21st time this year and then the Cardinal will gets wins from Morrissey, Wilczysnki, and Hsu with Stineman and Paige also leading at the time of the clinch. Prediction: Stanford 4-1
Prediction – 4-0 San Diego<br /><br />doubles and <br /><br />1 USD in straight<br />2 USD in straight<br />3 USD in straight<br />4 DNF with SDSU leading (Bertsch played 1 last year)<br />5 DNF with USD leading<br />6 DNF with score being relatively even<br />
It would be nice to see Stanford come out of this