Mitchell Frank and Marta Lesniak
FLUSHING MEADOWS, NY - After four grueling days of exciting matches, champions were crowned on Sunday at the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships.
Top-seeded Mitchell Frank (Annandale, Va.), a freshman from the University of Virginia and the reigning ITA All-American champion, faced by far his biggest challenge on Sunday, but he rose to the occasion and beat Illinois senior Dennis Nevolo (Gurnee, Ill.) 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, in a match that featured thrilling baseline rallies and some dazzling net play by Nevolo. The competitors were knotted at 5-all in the final set when Frank converted on a pivotal break point to take a 6-5 lead, and from there, he needed just five points to serve out the match and win the title.
"It was a tough one today," Frank said after the match. "The third set really went back and forth, and luckily I was able to convert the break at the end of the set. He’s a great player and it’s great to get a win like that. It’s very special to win any college tournament, and it’s definitely special to win at the site at the US Open."
In the women’s final, Marta Lesniak (Poland), a senior at Southern Methodist, won the school’s first indoor title by virtue of a 7-5, 6-1, victory over University of Florida senior Joanna Mather (Duluth, Ga.). Lesniak trailed Mather 4-1 in the opening set before taking complete control of the match, smacking winners from both wings and also connecting on four aces.
Each doubles final went the full three sets, with the winner of the opening set ultimately losing the match in both the men’s and women’s final. Ohio State’s No. 2 seeded team of Chase Buchanan and Blaz Rola fought back from a 4-6 first set deficit to defeat the No. 3 seeds from Tulsa, Ashley Watling and Clifford Marsland, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2. In the women’s final, the young unseeded team of Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria of USC upset No. 3 seeds Kristy Frilling and Shannon Mathews of Notre Dame 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
2 comments:
It would make for a better article if you omitted the part about BJ King.
BTW - I thought the USTA is trying to distance themselves from ITA. So why would they host an ITA event. Makes no sense other than the USTA probably made lots of money off of court rentals.
I took to heart the last comment and took out the part about BJK...
Just trying to be helpful.
I'm not sure why the USTA is interjecting themselves in the ITA tournament. I would imagine there are numerous reasons but kind of strange since they continually say they are distancing themselves from the ITA.
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