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NCAA Singles & Doubles Finals Recap: Jubb & Perez-Somarriba Win Singles Titles; UCLA Sweeps Doubles Titles

by | May 26, 2019 | Blog | 2 comments

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History was made on Saturday with Paul Jubb becoming the first South Carolina man to win the NCAA Singles Championship after the junior from Hull, England, halted the 31-match winning streak of Mississippi State senior Nuno Borges. 

Jubb, who also became the first British man to win the NCAA Singles Championship, took the early advantage after breaking Borges’s opening service game but Borges broke back and held for 2-1. Jubb would regain the lead with a break on the deciding point for 4-3 and then after holding on the deciding point he’d break one more time to take the opening set 6-3. 

Jubb went ahead 2-0 in the second set but Borges broke back and held for 2-2. It’d be all holds the rest of the way and then in the tiebreak Jubb opened up a 4-1 lead and cruised to take it 6-3, 7-6(2). 

“I was so relentless with my feet,” Jubb said. “That was the main thing we were saying with my coach, just going into every single ball. I’m one of the toughest players from the back and my tempo is so high, so I was just trying to keep that up the whole match.”

“Unbelievable,” Jubb said after the match. “I had to overcome so much mental toughness after losing to him twice this season. Overcoming that fear and regaining believe that I could win was so big for me today, and I did it.”

“I look back, and it’s amazing what I’ve done,” Borges said. “People tell me how great my career has been and I have to take from that moving foward. I should be proud of myself for what I’ve done and take all of the positives from my tennis into the future.”

“Nuno’s a warrior,” MSU head coach Matt Roberts said. “I was happy that he was able to develop here at Mississippi State and use our program to take him to the next level to where he can be a successful tennis pro. That, for me, is a huge step forward for our program. I’m just really proud of him for being such an incredible ambassador for Mississippi State and for college tennis. We can’t wait to see what he does on the pro tour, and he always has a family here at Mississippi State.”

 

 

Miami junior and No. 1 seed Estela Perez-Somarriba became the second Hurricane women (Audra Cohen 2007) to win the NCAA Women’s Singles Championship after a three-set win over No. 2 seed Georgia sophomore Katarina Jokic. 

The opening set was filled with breaks of serve with the first hold not coming until the seventh game when Jokic held for 4-3. Jokic broke for 5-3 but Perez-Somarriba broke back and held for 5-5. After a rare exchange of holds, Jokic would roll through the tiebreak taking it 7-1. 

Perez-Somarriba took control early in the second set with a break for 2-0 and would go on to take the set 6-2. 

Perez-Somarriba came out quick in the final set against a tired Jokic and led 5-1 but Jokic would fight off six match points to pull within 5-3. Perez-Somarriba managed to finally close it out on match point No. 7 after holding from 40/30 to get the win 6-7(1), 6-2, 6-3.

 

“It’s amazing. Dreams come true,” Perez-Somarriba said. “I am just really happy that I got to be here and that I was able to experience all of this. I am just really grateful to the University of Miami; the coaches, teammates and the staff, for making this possible and for helping me every single day.”

“Katarina is unbelievable . . . We made changes and then she made changes. We made different changes, she stepped up and made another change. That was going on the entire match,” Miami head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews said. “I didn’t think Estela played a great first set, I think her serve let her down. I told her that she needed to get her serving going because when she is not serving well she doesn’t feel confident and you are not going to beat [Jokic] if you don’t feel confident. So the first thing that we needed to do was just tweak the serve a little bit. She was able to do it immediately.”

“We made it,” Perez-Somarriba said of her thought when the match ended. “Honestly, I have dreamt about this many, many times and I really couldn’t believe that I actually did it. I am really happy that I got to experience this next to my coaches; they are the best.”

“I don’t think I have ever seen a better college tennis match in a bigger moment in my career,” Yaroshuk-Tews said. “It was just incredible.”

“It’s really unbelievable. You hear it all the time in sports that athletes deserve it and it doesn’t really even do this justice,” Yaroshuk-Tews said. “You have no idea the days that we have had post-NCAA tournament freshman year, post NCAA tournament sophomore year. We made some adjustments to her training, we made it tougher on her all year. There were moments that she didn’t like us, there were moments she didn’t understand us and she just got tougher, more resilient and able to deal with adversity and trusted us every step of the way. She trusted herself and her preparation every step of the way. This girl wakes up every single day and lives life the right way. She is walking away with a national title and I mean, words cannot even describe how happy I am for her.”

“She (Katarina) did all that we asked and more,” Georgia head coach Jeff Wallace said. “The 15 matches in nine days is a tall order, yet she is still competing in that last match. She literally had nothing in the tank, but was still in there. She represented the program unbelievably. She had an amazing season. I know she is hurting that she didn’t get this last one, but we are super proud of her.” 
 
 
 
 
 

UCLADubs 

UCLA became the first school since 1988 to sweep the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Doubles Championships.

Senior Maxime Cressy and sophomore Keegan Smith became the 14th UCLA men’s doubles team, third in the last four years, to win the title after a 6-3, 6-4 win over Alabama’s Patrick Kaukovalta and Mazen Osama. Neither Cressy or Smith were broken in the match while the Bruins duo broke Alabama’s serve twice – first break put them up 2-1 in the first and the second break made it 5-4 in the second. Cressy and Smith finished the year with a perfect 21-0 record. 

 

 

“Super run from Mazen (Osama) and Patrick (Kaukovalta),” Alabama head coach George Husack stated. “Clapping of the racket to their opponents as they served big and bigger throughout the match. Slim margin went their way. Not a lot of players get an opportunity to play for a national championship and I’m very happy these two got that experience. It’s both special and memorable.”
 

 

Gabby Andrews and Ayan Broomfield became the 7th UCLA women’s doubles team, first since 2008, to win the title after a wild 5-7, 7-6(6), 11-9 win over Michigan’s Kate Fahey and Brienne Minor. Andrews and Broomfield led the opening set 5-1 but Fahey and Minor reeled off six straight games to take the set 7-5. 

The second set started off with four consecutive holds and then was followed by eight consecutive breaks which put the set into a tiebreak. In the tiebreak, Fahey and Minor came back from 3-5 down to take a 6-5 lead but they’d be unable to convert championship point as Andrews and Broomfield would take it and the next two points to send it to a third set supertiebreak. 

Fahey and Minor led for most of the tiebreak but Andrews and Broomfield would surge ahead at 9-8. Fahey and Minor fought off match point but Andrews and Broomfield would take the next two to close it out 5-7, 7-6(6), 11-9.

 

 

Men’s Finals
[4] Paul Jubb (South Carolina Jr/GBR) def. [1] Nuno Borges (Miss State Sr/POR) 6-3, 7-6(2)
 
Women’s Finals:
[1] Estela Perez-Somarriba (Miami FL Jr/ESP) def. [2] Katarina Jokic (UGA Soph/SRB) 6-7(1), 6-2, 6-3
 
Men’s Dubs Finals:
[2] Max Cressy/Keegan Smith (UCLA) def. Patrick Kaukovalta/Mazen Osama (Alabama) 6-3, 6-4
 
Women’s Doubles Finals
[3] Gabby Andrews/Ayan Broomfield (UCLA) def. Kate Fahey/Brienne Minor (Michigan) 5-7, 7-6(6), 11-9

 

**Quotes are from the school’s recaps or the USTA National Campus’s daily recap. 

 
 

2 Comments

  1. 181
    181 on Thu March 19, 2020 at 5:38 pm

    Bobby, will you be updating transfers list? Are you able to see who is on transfer portal? Do you think more players will transfer now with the portal?

  2. 3
    3 on Thu March 19, 2020 at 5:38 pm

    I'm hoping to start working on the transfer list shortly – unfortunately I can't see the transfer portal – I believe only the coaches and school administrators can see it.

    The number of tennis transfers is already up near the top of all sports, if not at the top, since most don't have to sit out a year. I wouldn't think the portal would make more transfer though I suppose more could put themselves out there to see if another school was interested. However doing so would probably cause issues with the school they were currently at because if one of your players is looking elsewhere then the coach would probably look to replace that players if they were to leave. Of course most of the players transferring are lower lineup, or bench, players that probably weren't going to play as much even if they stayed.