Michigan
All-American Main Draw (Day 4)
Hung and Maravic Fall in Doubles Final at All-American
10/8/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Event: Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Championships
Scoring: No Team Scoring
Next U-M Match: Friday, Oct. 13 -- Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational (Midland, Texas)
Hung and Maravic Fall in Doubles Final at All-American
TULSA, Okla. -- The University of Michigan men's tennis program's quest at its first-ever individual national doubles championship came to an end Sunday afternoon (Oct. 8), as senior Brian Hung (Hong Kong, China/Sagemont Virtual School) and junior Matko Maravic (Zagreb, Croatia/V. Gimnazija) dropped an 8-3 decision to Georgia's Luis Flores and John Isner in the title match of the 2006 Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Championships at Tulsa's Michael D. Case Tennis Center.
Hung (left) and Maravic defeated four ranked teams in their run to the final.
It was Michigan's first appearance in a national championship match since 1989, when MaliVai Washington (1988-89) defeated teammate Dan Goldberg (1986-89) for the singles title at the ITA National Indoor Championships.
Each team held serve through the first three games of the match until the ninth-ranked pair of Flores and Isner broke Michigan's serve to take a 3-1 lead. Georgia followed with another break later on in the match to put Hung and Maravic on the brink of elimination at 7-2. The fifth-ranked Wolverine tandem held serve to stay alive, but Flores and Isner then held to clinch the match and the championship.
Hung and Maravic, the fourth seed in the 32-team main draw, picked up four convincing victories over nationally ranked opponents throughout the week to earn Michigan's first-ever berth in the doubles championship match at the event.
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).
Michigan will send a contingent of three players -- sophomores Peter Aarts (Pound Ridge, N.Y./Fox Lane HS) and Scott Bruckmann (Sarasota, Fla./Saint Stephen's Episcopal School) and freshman George Navas (Tampa, Fla./Tampa Preparatory School) -- to the 2006 Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational, to be held Oct. 13-15 at The Racquet Club in Midland, Texas.
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 -- l. #9 Luis Flores/John Isner (Georgia), 8-3
Finished as runner-up with a 4-1 record
Q U O T E S
U-M Assistant Coach Sean Maymi
On the difference in today's match... "We didn't have enough returns today and didn't give them any pressure on their serve. With that happening, our guys felt a little pressure on their own serve. Typically Brian and Matko are used to getting a lot of balls in play. Both Georgia players were serving pretty big, and once they were on, it was tough to get in points. I felt like we got a little discouraged, and you could see it translate into their service games. We were battling from behind right from the start."
On what Brian Hung and Matko Maravic can take away from the week... "Other than today, Brian and Matko played very consistent and I think they figured out what it takes to win big doubles matches. They're going to feel a little pressure when they play a team that hits as big as Georgia did. Generally that's going to be the kind of team that will give them the most problems. Next time they will understand that the points aren't going to be as long and that it's going to be more one-shot tennis. They're going to move forward and build on this for the rest of the year."
Contact: Marc Ressler (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
