Virginia men’s tennis had a strong showing at the U.Va. Ranked Plus One Invitational this past weekend, winning one singles and one doubles flight.
Sophomore Sanam Singh continued to remain dominant for Virginia, capturing the title in the A-2 singles flight. He defeated senior Enrique Olivares of East Tennessee State, who is ranked No. 31 nationally in a close but decisive match (7-6, 6-4).
“Singh is playing at an extremely high level,” head coach Brian Boland said. “His ability to play an all-court game has come a long way over the last couple of months.”
Sophomore Michael Shabaz also played in the final for the A-1 flight, losing to No. 39 Duke sophomore Reid Carleton. Shabaz was able to push the match to three sets with a final scoring of 7-6, 4-6, 6-2. Even though he lost in the singles championships, he had a very impressive win in the quarterfinal match by defeating No. 10 ranked sophomore John-Patrick Smith of Tennessee. Smith was runner-up in the NCAA singles championships last year, losing to Virginia graduate Somdev Devvarman.
“Smith is one of the best players in the country,” Shabaz said. “I have been playing a lot of tennis and working on my game, and it paid off. It was a close match and it could have gone either way, but I was able to come out on top.”
Though Shabaz was upset in the singles, he bounced back to take the A-3 doubles flight final with senior partner Dominic Inglot. The pair ended with a top performance, defeating Smith and Tennessee junior Davey Sandgren in an 8-5 final.
“Michael Shabaz had a great weekend,” Boland said. “He deserves all of the success because he has put so much time in over the last several months getting himself into shape and he still has room to improve as he will continue to get better each day.”
Also having a notable performance for Virginia were freshman Drew Courtney and junior Houston Barrick. In the third-place match for the A-1 singles flight, Simon Childs of Louisville defeated Courtney 6-3, 7-6. Courtney made a great effort to get to the third-place match, though, as he had to first beat a string of competitive players. In an earlier match against No. 67 Nebraska junior David Bendheim, Courtney made a comeback after dropping the first set but winning the next two in a final match score of 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.
“Our first-year [students] are doing so well,” Boland said. “Drew Courtney beat several ranked players this weekend, showing what a tremendous amount of improvement they have made in such a short time.”
Barrick had a stellar performance in his singles match, defeating No. 55 Tennessee sophomore Boris Conkic 2-6, 7-6, (10-7). The match went on to a tiebreaker ending with Barrick coming out on top.
“Barrick is playing his best tennis yet since he arrived at Virginia,” Boland said. “His development as a player is incredible and he has made huge strides over the last several months. His game is coming together and is growing into what we knew he was capable of.”
Though this was only the second tournament of the season for Virginia, but the players are already showing a strong level of play.
“They deserve the success thus far because they have all worked so hard,” Boland said. “I am so pleased at where we’re at already for this season.”
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