Star caps stellar career

By Jay Jenkins

Published: May 26, 2008

Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe are considered two of the best tennis players to ever compete at the NCAA level.
Well, Connors and McEnroe — along with just everybody else — can now take a backseat to Virginia’s Somdev Devvarman.
With a dominating 6-3,
6-2 win over Tennessee’s J.P. Smith on Monday night, the senior won his second straight NCAA singles title. He also may have staked claim to an auspicious title: greatest collegiate men’s player of all time.
Virginia coach Brian Boland certainly thinks so.
“Go back in history and try to find one player with not only the results he’s had, but the impact he’s had on a program,” said Boland by phone from Tulsa, Okla. “To be in three straight NCAA finals and win two of them — and the manner in which he did it. He’s broken every record that’s ever existed — not only at Virginia, but in the NCAA.
“He’s a special player and arguably the greatest player to ever play college tennis. If he’s not, he’s in a very small group of people.”
With the victory, Devvarman became the 13th player in the 124-year history of the tournament to win consecutive titles, and just the fourth to do so in the past 50 years.
He joined Arizona State’s Sargin Sargsian (1995) and UCLA’s Benjamin Kohlloeffel (2006) as the only players to win the ITA National Indoor Singles Championship and NCAA Singles Championship in the same season.
“That’s very special,” said Devvarman when asked about his place in history, “but I’ll let people decide wherever I stand. I’m just really happy with the way I’ve gone through my entire college career. I’ve put in a lot of time and hard work and I couldn’t be more happy with the way this ended.
“I’m not very happy about the way the team tournament ended [in an upset semifinal loss to Georgia], but this is one way I could try and get some smiles to the guys on the team. This is definitely a good makeup for that.”
At the post-match press conference, all Devvarman wanted to talk about was his team. When Devvarman accepted the NCAA trophy, the first thing he did was thank teammates and coaches.
It’s that kind of selflessness that has made Devvarman so special, Boland said.
“He loves to share victory and is so quick to give credit to everyone around him,” Boland said. “The guy is so rare. He’s so humble and just an incredibly, caring, compassionate and wonderful human being who just loves people.
“He’s one of the most incredible student-athletes that I’ve ever had the opportunity to coach.”
Devvarman finished with a 158-27 singles record, setting the school record for career victories. The senior was a staggering 88-6 over his final two seasons and concluded his career on a school-record 36-match win streak.
How, exactly, was he able to accomplish all of this?
“The most important thing was work ethic and heart,” Devvarman said. “When you get on the court, it’s all about heart. When you’re off the court, it’s all about work ethic.
“Those are the two things I’ve always put a lot of emphasis on.”
Devvarman ended the season with a 44-1 singles record. He is believed to be the first NCAA singles champion to finish the season with one or fewer losses since Connors went undefeated for UCLA in 1971.
Since then, NCAA Champions have included McEnroe (Stanford), Mikael Pernfors (Georgia) and Kevin Curren (Texas), all of whom went on to be ranked in the world Top 20 after they turned pro.
Devvarman is looking forward to a pro career, but said he will take about two weeks off before he comes up with an exact game plan.
In August, you might very well find the 23-year-old competing in the U.S. Open. The tournament typically grants a wild-card entry to the NCAA champion. But since Devvarman, a native of India, isn’t a U.S. citizen, an invitation isn’t automatic.
However, you’d think the U.S. Open might want one of the greatest — if not the greatest — college players of all time in its field.
“I have no control over that,” Devvarman said. “I’m just going to keep practicing and trying to get better.”
That plan has worked pretty well so far.