Georgia Wins!! (Photo Courtesy of Bill Kallenberg)

I personally thought Ohio State would roll in doubles, but Georgia seemed determined to not let that happen.

Ohio State’s No. 3 team of Matt Mendez and Hugo Di Feo earned the first break when they broke the Wayne Montgomery serve from 30-40 to go up 2-1. Hugo Di Feo would then hold on the deciding point for 3-1 with an Emil Reinberg forehand sailed wide. Clip of that point also shows Ohio State’s interesting formation with Mendez standing on the same side as Di Feo.

Georgia would get its first break of the day at No. 2 when Jan Zielinski hit a perfect lob on the deciding point to break the Ralf Steinbach’s serve to make it 3-1.  However Ohio State’s Steinbach and Martin Joyce would break the Paul Oosterbaan serve at love to put it back on serve at 3-2*.

Meanwhile over at No. 1 it would be Georgia’s Austin Smith and Ben Wagland that would earn the first break. Smith/Wagland went up 0-40 on Herkko Pollanen’s 3-3 service game before finally breaking on the deciding point to go up 4-3.

Back at No. 2, Georgia’s Paul Oosterbaan and Jan Zielinski would break Ralf Steinbach’s 3-4 service game from 30-40 to go up 5-3. Oosterbaan would then serve it out at love with Zielinski hammering home an overhead on match point to give Georgia the 6-3 win. (clip below is the break for 5-3; didn’t get match point because scoreboard was showing 30-0)

After falling behind 3-1 at No. 3, Georgia’s Emil Reinberg would hold and then he and Wayne Montgomery would break Matt Mendez to make it 3-3. Montgomery would hold at love for 4-3 and then the slow clap began with Georgia having a match point at No. 1 on the Mikael Torpegaard 3-5 service game. Austin Smith would hit a nice backhand return at Torpegaard’s feet and the Buckeye sophomore wasn’t able to get it back over and that was the match.

The wind didn’t seem to be as much a factor during the doubles point but once singles got underway it seemed to pick up a good bit.

Ohio State was looking to rebound after losing the doubles point, for only the fourth time in 18 matches, but it wasn’t going to be easy. The Buckeyes started off well in singles and actually had break leads on five of the six courts but they’d only be able to take first sets at No. 1 and No. 6.

Ohio State’s Mikael Torpegaard jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead on Austin Smith at No. 1 before Smith held, broke, and held to pull with 4-3. After an exchange of holds, Torpegaard would hold on the deciding point to take the opening set 6-4. Clip on left shows Torp breaking Smith from 30-40 in opening game of the match and the clip on the right is set point for Torp.

Torpegaard would go up an early break in the second set before Smith broke on the deciding point to even it at 2-2. Torpegaard would break back and then take the next three after that to win it 6-4, 6-2 in 1 hour and 17 minutes. Clip on left is Smith breaking for 2-2; clip on right is the final two points of the match.

Ohio State’s Hugo Di Feo started off the match at No. 2 by holding on the deciding point and then he’d hold on another deciding point to go up 2-1 (clip on left). Di Feo would snag the first break of the match when he broke Wayne Montgomery on the deciding point to go up 3-1 (clip on right).

Montgomery would break back from 15-40 and then consolidate the break for 3-3. Montgomery would break again, this time from 30-40, to go up 4-3 but Di Feo would break right back from 15-40 to make it 4-4. Di Feo would hold for 5-4 and then Montgomery held on the deciding point, which was also a set point for Di Feo, to make it 5-5 (clip on left). Montgomery broke for 6-5 and then held from 40-30 to take the opening set 7-5 (clip on right).

Montgomery raced out to a 5-1 lead in the second set and was up 0-40 on Di Feo’s serve but the Buckeye redshirt freshman managed to hold for 2-5. Di Feo broke from 30-40 for 3-5 but Montgomery broke back to win it 7-5, 6-3 in 1 hour and 28 minutes.

Meanwhile down at No. 6, Ohio State freshman Martin Joyce had a match point with Georgia freshman Jan Zielinski serving at 4-6, 4-5 (40-40). Zielinski managed to get the hold for 5-5 as the clip will show (sorry about the pole).  Quick note: the only break of the match up until this point was when Joyce broke Zielinski to take the first set 6-4.

After a pair of holds, Zielinski and Joyce went to a tiebreak. Zielinski jumped out to a double mini-break lead at *4-1 but Joyce got one back to make it 5-2*. Zielinski got one of the next two to go up *6-3 but Joyce rattled off three straight to even it at 6-6. Zielinski took the mini-break back and then won the set 7-6(6) when he hit a forehand down the line that Joyce couldn’t get back into play. The clip starts with Zielinski serving up 6-3 then after Joyce ties it at 6-6 it skips to Zielinski serivng at 7-6.

As Zielinski was forcing a third set at No. 6, Georgia’s Nick Wood was trying to close out Herkko Pollanen at No. 5. Wood jumped out to a 4-0 lead to start the match and held on the deciding point to close out the first set 6-2 (clip).

The second set started with four straight holds until Wood broke to go up 3-2. Wood would hold again a few games later to make it 5-3 but Pollanen would hold and then break Wood from 30-40 to even it at 5-5. Clip shows the 30-40 point where Wood mis-hits and overhead.

After each held one more time, Pollanen would jump out to a 5-1 lead in the tiebreak and end up forcing a third set by taking 7-6(5).

Over at No. 3 singles, Georgia’s Paul Oosterbaan and Ohio State’s Chris Diaz were locked in a pretty tight battle in which service breaks were more the norm than service holds.

Diaz broke Oosterbaan to start the match (left) but Paul broke right back for 1-1. Diaz would break again on the deciding point for 2-1 (right). but Oosterbaan broke back from 15-40 to make it 2-2.

Oosterbaan would get the first hold of the match, and take his first lead, when the 6’7″ redshirt sophomore from Kalamazoo ripped an ace on the deciding point.

Oosterbaan went up 30-40 on Diaz’s 2-3 service game but the Buckeye senior came back to hold for 3-3 when Oosterbaan wasn’t able to do enough with a mid-court forehand (left). Oosterbaan then held for 4-3 and broke for 5-3 but Diaz would break back from 30-40 to stay in the set (right).

Diaz held for 5-5 and then each held one more time to sent it to a tiebreak. The tiebreak was on serve when Diaz was serving at 4-5 but Oosterbaan would take the next two points to close out the set 7-6(4).

Oosterbaan broke Diaz to start the second set and then held on the deciding point for 2-0. Oosterbaan would extend his lead to 3-1 before Diaz held (deciding point), broke (left), held, and broke on the deciding point to go up 5-3 (right).

Oosterbaan would break for 4-5 and hold for 5-5 but then Diaz held on the deciding point for 6-5 and then broke from 30-40 to send it to a third set.

So, while No. 3, No. 5, and No. 6 were just starting a third set, the match at No. 4 between Ralf Steinbach and Walker Duncan was already several games into the third set. Walker Duncan trailed 4-2 in the opening set but he came back to take a 6-5 lead. The Georgia freshman then broke from 30-40 to take the opening set 7-5 (clip).

Steinbach dominated the second set taking it 6-2 and then he went up 4-2 in the third. Duncan would hold, break, and hold to up 5-4 and then he’d have a match point on the deciding point. Steinbach hit a service winner for the hold (left) and then he broke Duncan from 30-40 (right), on a point he was seemingly out of, to go up 6-5.

Steinbach would go down 15-40 on his serve but he’d come back to get the hold and tie the match at 2-2 with a 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 in 2 hours and 2 minutes.

Nick Wood was able to put his second set collapse behind him and run away from Herkko Pollanen in the third set and take it 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-2 in a match that took 2 hours and 29 minutes.

The two remaining matches on court were both in the home stretch. Martin Joyce was serving for the match at No. 6 up 6-5, after breaking Zielinski at love, while Georgia’s Paul Oosterbaan was serving for the match at No. 2 up 5-2.

Oosterbaan and Ohio State’s Chris Diaz exchanged a plethora of breaks all day so it wasn’t too surprising when Diaz broke from 30-40 to make it 3-5 (clip).

Diaz would hold for 4-5 but Oosterbaan would close it out with an easy overhead from 40-15 to take it 7-6(4), 5-7, 6-4 in 2 hours and 2 hours and 32 minutes. The first clip is the one I shot from the stands and the second was one that Georgia’s SID shot from courtside.

The match at No. 6 was abandoned with Zielinski leading 4-1* in the tiebreak. Zielinski broke Joyce to force the tiebreak after trailing 6-5.

To see all these video clips in chronological order you can check out my twitter feed.  Here is Georgia’s highlight package.