Michigan
ITA Indoors Day 3
Hung and Maravic Fall in ITA National Indoor Semifinal
11/4/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Event: ITA National Indoor Championships
Scoring: No Team Scoring
Next U-M Match: Friday, Nov. 10 -- Qualifying at Big Ten Singles Championship (Varsity Tennis Center)
Hung and Maravic Fall in ITA National Indoor Semifinal
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Senior Brian Hung (Hong Kong, China/Sagemont Virtual School) and junior Matko Maravic (Zagreb, Croatia/V. Gimnazija) of the University of Michigan men's tennis team fell just shy of a second straight berth in the championship match of a national doubles tournament, as the Wolverine duo dropped an 8-5 decision to Middle Tennessee State's No. 3-ranked Marco Born and Andreas Siljestrom in the semifinal round of the 2006 ITA National Indoor Championships Saturday morning (Nov. 4) at the Racquet Club of Columbus.
Hung and Maravic, the No. 5-ranked doubles team in the nation, have now secured at least a semifinal finish in the first two national doubles championship events of 2006-07. They were the runner-up team at last month's Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Championships (Oct. 5-8).
The two teams were on serve through the first eight games of the match until Born and Siljestron broke Maravic's serve to go ahead 5-4. Maravic was then broken once more to give the Blue Raider duo the decisive eighth point.
The No. 2 seed in the 16-team main draw, Hung and Maravic earned victories over William & Mary's Alex Cojanu and Colin O'Brien (8-3) and Brown's Basu Ratnam and Eric Thomas (8-5) earlier in the week to advance to Saturday's semifinal round.
It marks the second time in three years that Michigan has suffered a loss in the doubles semifinals at the ITA National Indoor Championships. In 2004, Hung and classmate Ryan Heller (Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North HS) fell to then No. 1-ranked and defending NCAA champions KC Corkery and Sam Warburg of Stanford by a score of 8-6.
Hung and Maravic conclude the fall with a 6-2 doubles record, including victories over five nationally ranked opponents. The tandem holds a career record of 44-18.
The ITA National Indoor Championships are the second of three national championship events during the 2006-07 collegiate tennis season, with the other two being the Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Championships (Oct. 5-8) and the NCAA Championships (May 11-28).
Michigan closes out the fall season by hosting the Big Ten Singles Championship Nov. 10-13 at the Varsity Tennis Center.
Following are match-by-match results:
#5 Brian Hung/Matko Maravic
First Round -- d. #53 Alex Cojanu/Colin O'Brien (William & Mary), 8-3
Quarterfinals -- d. Basu Ratnam/Eric Thomas (Brown), 8-5
Semifinals -- l. #3 Marco Born/Andreas Siljestrom (Middle Tennessee State), 8-5
Finished as a semifinalist with a 2-1 record
Q U O T E S
U-M Assistant Coach Sean Maymi
On the difference in today's match... "As I've said before, a lot of the teams that are going to give them problems are guys that have big serves. Both of the guys they played today were about 6-8 and served really well. Playing indoors is tough because the ball goes a little quicker, which was not to our advantage. I felt that we just did not serve smart and did not serve well. They fought hard to get those five games and really hung in there considering that they played mediocre in comparison to what they've shown in the past."
On the pair's confidence level heading into the dual match season... "After seeing a lot of the other top teams in the country, we know now that Brian and Matko are just as good and can win against anyone on any given day. It provides a lot of comfort knowing that we have one of the better doubles teams in the country. Brian and Matko both know that they have a lot to improve on, which is a good thing. We feel pretty good going into January knowing that we've got a team that is going to give us a lot of wins."
Contact: Marc Ressler (734) 763-4423
