Rookie Wirth Advances to Singles Finals at UVA Invite

The Tribe also advanced a pair of doubles teams to the semfinals at the Invite.

09/15/07 7:45PM

Charlottesville, Va. - The William and Mary men’s tennis team sent a pair of doubles teams into the semifinals, and freshman Ben Wirth moved into the finals of his first collegiate tournament on day two of the Virginia Invitational. The Tribe pair of junior Alex Zuck and sophomore Richard Wardell and the tandem of senior Kavi Sud and freshman Sebastien Vidal comprise half the B-2 Doubles Bracket semifinals after each W&M team tallied a pair of victories on Saturday.

The UVA Invite includes players from 27 schools, including 16 programs that finished last season ranked in the final ITA Top-75 Rankings. The singles brackets at the event include 19 nationally ranked players, while the doubles brackets have 10 ranked teams competing.

After notching the first two victories over his W&M career on Friday, Wirth garner a spot in the Brown Singles Final with a straight-sets win over Sam Burns of Davidson. The Virginia Beach, Va., native need tiebreakers in both sets, but tallied the 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4) victory to punch a ticket into the finals. He will meet Columbia’s Kevin Kung on Sunday.

Fellow classmate Vidal was not as fortunate in his Black Singles Semifinal match against Harvard’s Alexei Chijoff-Evans. After dropping the first set, 6-2, Vidal rebounded to force a decisive third set with a tiebreaker win in the second. The W&M rookie could not carry the momentum over to the final set thought as Chijoff-Evans notched the 6-2 victory.

Each of the Tribe’s five doubles teams in action on Saturday tallied at least one victory on the day highlighted by the efforts in the B-2 Double Flight. In the opening round, Zuck and Wardell disposed of Denver’s Althaus and Riabuchin, 8-4, while Vidal and Sud knocked off Cox of Penn State and Sunderland of Virginia, 8-3, to earn a quarterfinal slot.

W&M will represent half of semifinals after both teams tallied quarterfinal victories on Saturday as well. Zuck and Wardell rolled past Penn’s Vasin and Ogara, 8-1. Vidal and Sud continued their strong performance with an 8-5 victory over Bacalla and Cullen of Western Michigan. Both teams will compete at the Snyder Tennis Center on Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. with Zuck and Wardell playing the Penn State duo of St. Maurice and Gormley, while Vidal and Sud will battle Wolff and Morgenstern of Wake Forest.

The Tribe’s top doubles pair of senior Alex Cojanu and Keziel Juneau opened the A-1 Doubles Flight as the top seed and tallied an 8-5 win over Capkovic and Vuckovic of Princeton in the opening round. The No. 11-ranked pair nationally could not find the winning touch in the quarterfinals though, falling to the Virginia duo of Singer and Singh, 9-7.

Freshman Varun Pandit and junior Dominic Pagon opened the B-1 Doubles Flight with a 9-7 first round win over Burns and Noble of Davidson. The Tribe pair fell to Wong and Kung of Columbia, 8-6, in the quarterfinals.

Also in the B-1 Doubles Bracket, junior Marwan Ramadan and Wirth earned a spot in the consolation semifinals after dropping their first match of the season. In the consolation quarterfinals, the Tribe pair bounced Denver’s Dhatt and Goldberg from the tournament, 8-2. Ramadan and Wirth will battle Calderone and Staub of Western Michigan in consolation semifinals at 9 a.m. at Dells on Sunday.

Pagon and Ramadan each advanced to the consolation finals of the White and Orange Singles Draws, respectively, with wins on Saturday. Pagon defeated Justin Fox of Penn in three sets, 6-4, 6-7, 10-3, while Ramadan cruised past Michael Hayes of Harvard, 6-0, 6-1. Both Tribe players will compete in the finals following doubles on Sunday.

The Tribe will wrap up Virginia Invitational on Sunday, Sept. 16, beginning with the doubles finals at 9 a.m. The singles portion of the schedule is slated to follow doubles.

W&M Results from the UVA Fall Invitational
White Singles Consolation Semifinals
Dominic Pagon (W&M) def. Justin Fox (Penn) - 6-4, 6-7, 10-3

Green Singles Consolation Semifinals
Brandon Lindsley (Longwood) def. Alex Zuck (W&M) – 6-2, 3-6, 10-5

Orange Singles Consolation Semifinals
Marwan Ramadan (W&M) def. Michael Hayes (Harvard) – 6-0, 6-1

Black Singles Semifinals
Alexei Chijoff-Evans (Harvard) def. Sebastien Vidal (W&M) - 6-2, 6-7, 6-2

Brown Singles Semifinals
Ben Wirth (W&M) def. Sam Burns (Davidson) - 7-6(2), 7-6(4)

A-1 Doubles First Round
#1 Cojanu and Juneau (W&M) [11] def. Capkovic/Vuckovic (Princeton) – 8-5

A-1 Doubles Quarterfinals
Singer/Singh (UVA) def. #1 Cojanu and Juneau (W&M) [11] – 9-7

B-1 Doubles First Round
Pandit/Pagon (W&M) def. Burns/Noble (Davidson) – 9-7
Nguyen/Evans (Harvard) def. Wirth/Ramadan (W&M) – 8-6

B-1 Doubles Quarterfinals
Wong/Kung (Columbia) def. Pandit/Pagon (W&M) – 8-6

B-1 Doubles Consolation Quarterfinals
Ramdan/Wirth (W&M) def. Dhatt/Goldberg (Denver) – 8-2

B-2 Doubles First Round
Zuck/Wardell (W&M) def. Althaus/Riabuchin (Denver) – 8-4
Vidal/Sud (W&M) def. Cox/Sunderland (PSU/UVa) – 8-3

B-2 Doubles Quarterfinals
Zuck/Wardell (W&M) def. Vasin/Ogara (Penn) – 8-1
Vidal/Sud (W&M) def. Bacalla/Cullen (W.Mich.) – 8-5