Michigan
Midwest Regional Main Draw
Maravic Paces Michigan Effort at ITA Midwest Regional
10/22/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Event: Wilson/ITA Midwest Regional Championships
Scoring: No Team Scoring
Next U-M Match: Thursday, Nov. 2 -- ITA National Indoor Championships (Columbus, Ohio)
Maravic Paces Michigan Effort at ITA Midwest Regional
Event Recap| Complete Results
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- Junior Matko Maravic (Zagreb, Croatia/V. Gimnazija) led a contingent of eight University of Michigan men's tennis players in the main draw of the 2006 Wilson/ITA Midwest Regional Championships, held Friday through Sunday (Oct. 20-22) at Minnesota's Baseline Tennis Center. Maravic was the last Wolverine standing in singles play, reaching the round of 16 before bowing out, and paired with freshman George Navas (Tampa, Fla./Tampa Preparatory School) to reach the third round in doubles action.
The 25th-ranked Maravic posted a pair of straight-set victories against Big Ten conference foes in the opening two rounds. He had no trouble moving past Wisconsin's Lachezar Kasarov (6-1, 6-0) in the first round before knocking off Indiana's Michael McCarthy by a score of 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the round of 16. The run ended there, as 21st-seeded Marc Spicijaric of Illinois handed the fourth-seeded Maravic a 6-4, 6-4 defeat.
Two Wolverines picked up opening-round singles wins in the 64-player draw. Sophomore Scott Bruckmann (Sarasota, Fla./Saint Stephen's Episcopal School), who recorded three qualifying victories earlier in the week to earn a trip to the main draw, outlasted Indiana State's Anton Tsymbalov by a score of 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. Senior Steve Peretz (Brooklyn, N.Y./The Dwight School) cruised by Butler's Eric Breitenbach by a 6-4, 6-1 margin. Both Wolverines suffered second-round defeats to ranked opponents, with Bruckmann falling to Notre Dame's No. 21-ranked Stephen Bass, 7-6(6), 6-3, and Peretz losing to Ohio State's No. 65-ranked Steven Moneke, 6-1, 6-1.
All four of Michigan's doubles pairings were triumphant in the opening round of the 64-team doubles draw, but only Maravic and Navas were able to move past that point. After fairly easy wins over teams from Ball State (8-2) and Butler (8-4), the Wolverine duo was eliminated by Notre Dame's No. 36-ranked tandem of Ryan Keckley and Sheeva Parbhu by a score of 8-1 in the round of 16.
Michigan's top doubles team of Maravic and senior Brian Hung (Hong Kong, China/Sagemont Virtual School) will compete at the 2006 ITA National Indoor Championships, to be held Nov. 2-5 at the Racquet Club of Columbus in Columbus, Ohio.
Q U O T E S
U-M Head Coach Bruce Berque
On Michigan's performance at the tournament... "We definitely had some bright spots during the week. I'm not really looking at these results as a measurement of how our team is going to be in the region. It wouldn't be fair to us because we didn't have a full team here. The performance that stands out most in my mind is that of Scott Bruckmann. He beat a couple of good players in qualifying and then had one of his better wins in the first round of the main draw. It was definitely a good week for him and he improved his game quite a bit.
"We were also able to get our new guys, George (Navas), Mike (Sroczynski) and Matt (Parks), exposed to the level of play in college and our region in particular. I think it was an eye-opener for them in many ways. I'm hoping that this experience will push them to work really hard in the coming months so that they're ready to make an impact during the dual match season."
Contact: Marc Ressler (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
