Devvarman advances in Tulsa

By Ed Burton Daily Progress correspondent
Published: May 22, 2008

TULSA, Okla. — Virginia’s Somdev Devvarman began his NCAA title defense in strong fashion on Wednesday, defeating Ryan Preston of Vanderbilt, 6-1, 6-3.
Teammates Dominic Inglot and Treat Huey lost in their first round matches in lengthy three-set battles in a steady wind. UVa has the top-seeded entries in singles and doubles in this year’s championship, with Devvarman seeded No. 1 in the singles tournament and the team of Devvarman and Huey holding the top seed in the doubles competition. Devvarman and the team of Devvarman and Huey have held the top collegiate rankings in their division for nearly the entire season.
Devvarman had little trouble with the hard-serving and hard-hitting Preston. After cruising to a 6-1 victory in the first set, Devvarman found himself down 15-40 on his own serve with Preston leading 2-1. He rattled off four quick points to take that game and went on to win four of the final games to seal the victory.
Devvarman is now 39-1 on the season. His only loss came against Georgia’s Travis Helgeson in the fall. He exacted his revenge on Helgeson earlier this week, defeating Helgeson during the Bulldogs’ win in the team tournament.
Devvarman and Helgeson are in the same half of the singles draw, which means the two could meet again in the semifinals of the tournament later this week.
Ninth-seeded Inglot found himself struggling early in his match with Ohio State’s Justin Kronauge. Inglot uncharacteristically lost serve three times to lose the first set, 6-1.
He battled back in the second set, holding serve twice at love and closing out the set with three consecutive service aces. In the third set the players battled to a tiebreaker at 6-6. Kronauge played an error-free tiebreaker to win the match 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (2).
Huey drew 9-16 seeded Ivan Bjelica of Mississippi State. He broke Bjelica in game five to take an early lead at 3-2 and held on to win 6-4.
In the second set, Bjelica broke Huey’s serve in the fourth game to lead 3-1. Huey had a break point in the seventh game, but Bjelica held and went on to take the second set 6-3. In the third set, the two traded service breaks as the match reached 4-4. Then Huey dropped his serve and Bjelica served out the match to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Devvarman returns to action in singles against Clancy Shields of Boise State on Thursday. He and Huey begin their quest for the NCAA doubles championship with a match Thursday against Alabama’s Daniel Buikema and Mathieu Thibaudeau.