Matt Seeberger Advances in Both Draws

St. Louis, Mo., May 18, 2007 — The 2007 NCAA Men’s Tennis Singles and Doubles Championships got underway Friday at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center in Forest Park. After an exciting first day of individual play, the singles and doubles quarterfinal fields are now set.

In singles play, a 32-player draw, Washington University in St. Louis freshman John Watts cruised through day one, winning his round of 32 and 16 matches each in straight sets. Watts opened the morning with a 7-5, 6-2 victory against second-ranked Larry Wang of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges. In his next match, Watts posted a 6-0, 6-2 win against Charlie Boyd of the University of the South.

Top-ranked Matt Seeberger of team champion University of California-Santa Cruz struggled early versus Washington U.’s Charlie Cutler. Cutler held leads of 3-0, 4-1 and 5-4 in the first set before Seeberger rallied for a 7-5 win. In the second frame, Seeberger, the 2004 and 2005 singles national champion, ended the match with a 6-2 win.

UC-Santa Cruz also received a strong effort from Brian Pybas, who upended third-ranked Michael Goodwin of Emory University. Pybas rolled to a 6-3, 6-0 victory in the opening round, and a 6-1, 6-4 win in the second round. The other five players who advanced to the quarterfinals, including two from Gustavus Adolphus College, are: No. 11 Jesse Brauer of Gustavus Adolphus, No. 5 Andy Bryan of Gustavus Adolphus, Zack Lerner of Amherst College, Conrad Olson of Middlebury College, and No. 7 Evan Webeler of DePauw University.

In the opening round of the 16-team doubles draw, Goodwin and Yoji Masuoka of Emory upended 11th-ranked Randy Lofgren and Kevin Neuman of Denison University, 6-3, 7-5. Washington U.’s Cutler also bounced back from a tough singles match, pairing with Chris Hoeland for a 6-3, 6-2 victory. Among the day’s other doubles highlights, Seeberger and Max Ortiz of UC-Santa Cruz stamped their ticket to the quarterfinals with a hard-fought 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 win. Seeberger has been a part of the last two doubles national championship duos while at UC-Santa Cruz.
       
The Championships continue Saturday at 9 a.m. with singles quarterfinals, at noon with singles semifinals, and at 3 p.m. with doubles quarterfinals play.