Feb. 24, 2000
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky - Stanford freshman David Martin's (Key Biscayne, FL/Boca Raton Prep) 4-6, 7-6 (9-7), 1-0 (10-7) win at No. 4 singles helped the second-ranked Cardinal (5-0) pull out a thrilling 4-3 victory over eighth-ranked Illinois (4-1) in the first round of the USTA/ITA National Men's Team Indoors on Thursday afternoon at the Louisville Tennis Center. Four of the six singles matches went to the third set tiebreaker and were finished within five minutes of one another.
The Cardinal, which has captured this event 10 times in its 25-year history, faces No. 37 Indiana State (8-1) in quarterfinal action on Friday at 9:30 a.m. (Pacific time). The Sycamores advanced to the quarterfinals with a 5-4 overtime victory over No. 16 Georgia on Thursday.
The third-seeded Cardinal captured the doubles point behind victories from Alex Kim (Potomac, MD/Winston Churchill HS) and Geoff Abrams (Newport Beach, CA/Newport Harbor HS) at No. 1 and Ali Ansari (Houston, TX/Second Baptist HS) and Scotty Scott (Belvedere, CA/Pinewood HS) at No. 3. Kim and Abrams, who are currently the top ranked doubles team in the nation by the ITA, defeated the ITA's ninth ranked duo of Jeff Laski (Lisle, IL/Naperville North HS) and Jamal Parker (Denville, NJ/Newark Academy) 8-4. Ansari and Scott, meanwhile, clinched the doubles point with a 9-7 win over Matthew Snyder (Rye, NY/Rye County Day HS) and Shawn Brooke (Plantation, FL/Boca Raton HS).
Ansari posted Stanford's only straight set singles win by knocking off Mike Kosta (Ann Arbor, MI/Huron HS) 6-4, 6-3, though Scott was a 6-4, 6-1 loser to Graydon Oliver (Weston, FL/Univ. of Alabama). The other four matches all went the distance, and it was two Cardinal freshmen who pulled out the third set tiebreaker and sent Illinois to its earliest ever exit in the ITA Team Indoors.
Instead of a third set, a match tie-breaker (first to 10, win by two) was played. The Cardinal's Scott Lipsky (Merrick, NY/Bellinore-Kennedy HS) outlasted Snyder 3-6, 6-4 and 10-8 in the tiebreaker for the third point, and Martin then clinched the victory with the 10-7 tiebreaker victory over Parker. Martin's win helped Stanford clinch its 21st quarterfinal appearance in the ITA Team Indoors, and avenge last year's semifinal loss to the Illini.
#2 Stanford 4, #8 Illinois 3
Singles
No. 1 - #67 (tie) Cary Franklin (I) d. #2 Alex Kim, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 1-0 (12-10)
No. 2 - #84 Jeff Laski (I) d. #6 Geoff Abrams, 3-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-6)
No. 3 - Graydon Oliver (I) d. Scotty Scott, 6-4, 6-1
No. 4 - #87 (tie) David Martin (S) d. Jamal Parker, 4-6, 7-6 (7), 1-0 (10-7)
No. 5 - Scott Lipsky (S) d. Matthew Snyder, 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-8)
No. 6 - Ali Ansari (S) d. Mike Kosta, 6-3, 6-4
Doubles
No. 1 - #1 Alex Kim/Geoff Abrams (S) d. #9 Jeff Laski/Jamal Parker, 8-4
No. 2 - #45 (tie) Graydon Oliver/Cary Franklin (I) d. Scott Lipsky/David Martin, 8-1
No. 3 - Ali Ansari/Scotty Scott (S) d. Matthew Snyder/Shawn Brooke, 9-7
Records - #8 Illinois 4-1, #2 Stanford 5-0.
* A match tie-breaker (first to 10, win by two) was played in place of a third set.