Michigan
All-American Main Draw (Day 3)
Hung and Maravic Reach Doubles Final at All-American
10/7/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Event: Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Championships
Scoring: No Team Scoring
Next U-M Match: Sunday, Oct. 8 -- Main Draw (Day 4) at Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Championships (Tulsa, Okla.)
Hung and Maravic Reach Doubles Final at All-American
TULSA, Okla. -- Senior Brian Hung (Hong Kong, China/Sagemont Virtual School) and junior Matko Maravic (Zagreb, Croatia/V. Gimnazija) will look to claim the first individual national tennis title for the University of Michigan in 17 years after earning yet another dominating victory Saturday morning (Oct. 7) in the semifinals of the 2006 Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Championships at Tulsa's Michael D. Case Tennis Center. With a victory in the championship match tomorrow (Sunday, Oct. 8), the Wolverine tandem would wrap up U-M's first individual national championship in tennis since 1989, when MaliVai Washington (1988-89) defeated teammate Dan Goldberg (1986-89) for the singles title at the ITA National Indoor Championships.
Hung and Maravic, the fifth-ranked doubles team in the nation and the fourth seed in the 32-team main draw, put together another strong performance in their semifinal match against Louisiana State's No. 28-ranked James Cluskey and Ken Skupski. After falling behind a break at 2-1, the Wolverines stayed focused and earned a break in the next game to knot the score at 2-2. Hung and Maravic turned up the intensity and captured six of the next eight games to close out Cluskey and Skupski and advance to Sunday's championship match.
Hung and Maravic, who have not allowed more than four games against each of their four nationally ranked opponents this week, will face Georgia's No. 9-ranked Luis Flores and John Isner for the title tomorrow. The matchwill follow the 10 a.m. CDT singles championshipmeeting between Isner and Tulsa's Arnau Brugues. Should Hung and Maravic come away with the win, it will be Michigan's first national doubles crown in the 114-year history of the program.
The Polo Ralph Lauren Championships are the first of three national championship events during the 2006-07 collegiate tennis season, with the other two being the ITA National Indoor Championships (Nov. 2-5) and the NCAA Championships (May 11-28).
Following are match-by-match results:
Brian Hung/Matko Maravic
First Round -- d. #22 Jakob Klaeson/Robbye Poole (Mississippi), 8-2
Second Round -- d. #48 Arnau Brugues/Federico Soriano (Tulsa), 8-4
Quarterfinals -- d. #23 Somdev Devvarman/Treat Huey (Virginia), 8-3
Semifinals -- d. #28 James Cluskey/Ken Skupski (Louisiana State), 8-4
Championship Match (Sunday, time TBA) -- vs. #9 Luis Flores/John Isner (Georgia)
Q U O T E S
U-M Assistant Coach Sean Maymi
On today's performance by Brian Hung and Matko Maravic... "I don't think they played as well as they did yesterday, but they really dug deep. They were down a break early but battled back and took control of the match. I was proud of them for that. It's tough when you're down early because that's when you decide whether you're going to keep fighting or just pack it in. They just responded really well. Once they got the break back, you could see they were pretty relieved and they seemed to relax a little bit. That's when they opened it up and took control. The guys have an understanding of what they do well and they're just sticking to it. That's what they've been doing all along."
U-M Junior Matko Maravic
On today's semifinal victory... "We're both pretty happy. I'mvery excited right now. We came in here with high expectations and we've proved why we're the No. 5 team in the country. We don't want to stop right now. We've got one more match and we really want to win."
On the reasons for their success this week ... "I think we've been very consistent, especially on our serving and returning game. We had a lot of first serves made. Overall, I think we have broken pretty well and returned very consistently. We were able to break every team at least two or three times."
On the things they need to do to get a win tomorrow... "The team we face tomorrow has guys who are pretty tall and have big serves. We just need to keep it simple and not be flashy. We need to continue to hit a very high percentage of first serves."
Contact: Marc Ressler (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
