Singles & Doubles Winners Crowned at NCAA Division I Championships

Story & Photos by Marcia Frost

The 2008 NCAA Championships has been full of new faces as well as repeat ones, but the most interesting part has been the variety. There was an astounding 14 different schools represented during the eight semifinals.  Only a two of those schools had more than one representative -- Ole Miss and Fresno State -- and in the end none of those made it through to the winners' circle.

Despite unseeded players in the the finals, the seeding held true in the end at the University of Tulsa -- in most cases. The men's semifinals produced some great matches with  No. 8 Alex Clayton of Stanford and No. 1 Somdev Devvarman, the defending champion, not disappointing.  It's hard not to like the finesse of the University of Virginia senior or the power of Alex's forehand, which, like his serve, can go by at lightening speed. With their different styles of hitting winners the games were long and close. Though Alex aced his way out of two break points down at 5-5 in the second, he couldn't get past the Devvarman when it went into a tiebreaker. The Cavalier was set to play his  third consecutive NCAA singles final. (The last player to do that was Marty Riessen from 1962 to 64.)

Facing Somdev Devvarman in the final was a suprise.  J.P. Smith was the first University Tennessee player to advance to the championship match since his current Associate Head Coach Chris Woodruff did it (and won) in 1993. The unseeded freshman had defeated Andre Begemann in the semis.  It was an emmotional match for senior Begemman, who had missed the team event because of his mother's death.  There was much more excitement than the 6-2,6-4 score showed.

In the end, top-seeded Somdev Devvarman was just too good for freshman Smith and he became the first player since Georgia's Matias Boeker (2000, '01) to win back-to-back NCAA Men's Singles Championships.

Last year's team win belonged to the  Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets for the first time ever and this year one of Coach Bryan Shelton's team claimed the school's first individual title.   Amanda McDowell was in command over unseeded former singles champion (2005) Zuzanna Zemenova of Baylor, who had dismissed three other top players on her way to the final match.   It had taken its toll on her and she looked a bit tired. Though there were some good points, the heat and humidity seemed to take the pep out of both players. Amanda prevailed and went home with her first title and a chance to come back next year.

The doubles began the day and once again it was a good time for American doubles with seeding holding true to form. Women from the U.S. have been in every winning doubles team for the last 27 years and that didn't change today as the top-seeded UCLA duo of Riza Zalameda & Tracy Lin prevailed over the second-seeded Fresno State team of Tinesta Rowe & Melanie Gloria. It wasn't quite so easy for the Bruins, who have played quite a bit of tennis here after winning the team event and then both making it through the first few rounds of singles. It was a great display of doubles play from both teams that the crowd really enjoyed through the three sets.

During the semis, the No. 2 seeds from the University of Southern California, Robert Farah & Kaes Van't Hoft, went three tiebreak sets (and took six match points) with Ole Miss' Bram ten Berge & Matthias Wellerman. In the finals, they faced that opponents teammates for a match that almost went that far. Jonas Berg & Erling Tveit, seeded fourth, put up the same fight, pushing the Southern Cal men to eight set points before succombing 7-6(10) in the first. After another set of powerful serve and volley that had one break -- and one break back -- it was into another tiebreaker. This time, however, Farah & Van't Hoft (son of former NCAA champ and professional player Robert)  were determined to end it and did so on their first match point.

The 2008 NCAA Division I Championships, with the exception of top-seeded defending champion Somdev Devvarman, were unpredictable all around with champions from a whole host of schools.  Blue and white hats off to the only multiple winners -- UCLA Bruins Tracy Lin & Riza Zalameda.

Full results are available at the Official Website.  The Tennis Channel will air the final matches on June 9th, check local listings.

Marcia Frost can be reached at Marcia@CollegeAndJuniorTennis.com