University of Illinois
NCAA Singles/Doubles Championships
DeHeart, Both Doubles Teams Advance at NCAA Championships
May 25, 2006 | Men's Tennis
May 25, 2006
PALO ALTO, Calif. - The Illinois men's tennis team continued singles play and began doubles competition Thursday at the NCAA individual championships in Palo Alto, Calif. Senior Ryler DeHeart advanced to the Round of 16 while sophomore Kevin Anderson's bid for a second straight All-America honor fell short. DeHeart teamed with senior Pramod Dabir to advance in the doubles draw as well as the team of Anderson and fellow sophomore Ryan Rowe.
DeHeart edged 18th-ranked Todd Paul of Wake Forest 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 and will face ninth-ranked Travis Helgeson of Texas tomorrow.
"Todd Paul is an excellent player and gave Ryler a good challenge," head coach Brad Dancer said. "Its nice for Ryler to move on and he'll be tested tomorrow."
On the lower half of the draw was a battle between two Davis Cup players, Anderson of South Africa and third-seeded Luigi D'Agord of the Bahamas. Miami's D'Agord was the winner, ending Anderson's impressive sophomore campaign 7-6(3), 6-3. Anderson's .867 (26-4) winning percentage is currently a team best.
"D'Agord is probably one of the best players Kevin has played all year," Dancer said. "Kevin stepped up to the challenge but he wasn't able to pull it off."
Anderson and Rowe, who make up the nation's fourth-ranked doubles team needed three sets to fend off Stanford's 16th-ranked pair of KC Corkery and James Pade on their home court, 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-4. The fourth-ranked sophomore duo will challenge 20th-ranked Strahinja Bobusic and Colin Purcell of Georgia tomorrow.
19th-ranked DeHeart and Dabir defeated 55th-ranked Ashwin Kumar and Sasha Ermakov of Harvard 6-3, 7-6(4). The pair literally have a tall order tomorrow as they face Andreas Siljestrom and Marco Born of Middle Tennessee State, who are both 6-9 and ranked sixth in the nation. The Blue Raider duo captured the ITA All-American doubles championships and were finalists at the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships.
Play for singles will begin at 12 p.m. CDT for singles, with doubles to follow on Friday. For more information and live scoring on the NCAA individual singles and doubles tournaments please visit: http://gostanford.cstv.com/sports/m-tennis/spec-rel/stan-m-tennis-ncaa-06.html
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS RESULTS
Palo Alto, Calif.
Singles - Round of 32
No. 11 Ryler DeHeart (ILL) def. No. 18 Todd Paul (WAKE); 5-7, 7-5, 6-3
No. 3 Luigi D'Agord (MIAMI) def. No. 24 Kevin Anderson (ILL); 7-6(3), 6-3
Doubles - Round 1
No. 4 Anderson/Rowe (ILL) def. No. 16 Korkery/Pade (STAN); 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-4
No. 19 Dabir/DeHeart (ILL) def. No. 55 Ermakov/Kumar (HARV); 6-3, 7-6(4)
