May 24, 2006
Results
Stanford, Calif. - On the first day of men's singles action, seven of the eight top seeds advanced to the round of 32, while half of the Nos. 9-16 seeds were ousted in the first round. Stanford, Virginia, Texas and Illinois all sent two players to the second round. Second round men's singles play continues tomorrow morning at 10 a.m.
Pepperdine's Pedro Rico pulled the biggest upset of the day, topping No. 4 seed Lars Poerschke of Baylor 6-4, 6-7, 7-5. The senior from Alicante, Spain avenged a first round loss in the 2005 singles championships and improved his 2006 record to 25-4. Last night, Rico helped Pepperdine to its first-ever NCAA Team Championship with a 4-2 upset victory over top-seeded Georgia.
The tournament's top three seeds all advanced with two-set wins. UCLA's Benjamin Kohlloeffel, the tournament's top seed, claimed a 6-2, 6-4 win over Vladimir Obradovic of Florida, No. 2 seed John Isner of Georgia topped Minnesota's D.J. Geatz 7-5, 6-3 and No. 3 seed Luigi D' Agord of Miami won his 20th straight match, beating Alex Skrypko of SMU, 6-1, 6-2.
Four of the Nos. 9-16 seeds fell in first round. Harel Srugo of Old Dominion ousted North Carolina's Raian Luchici 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-0, San Diego's Pierrick Ysern, a 2005 NCAA Finalist, handled Jerry Makowski of Texas A&M, 6-3, 6-3, Robert Searle of Rice advanced over Daniel Byrnes of Oklahoma State and Notre Dame's Sheeva Parbhu beat Scott Doerner of Pepperdine 7-5, 6-0.
No. 6 seed Conor Niland of California improved to 24-2 this season, after opening the season with 19-match win streak, and advanced with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Stephen Bass of Notre Dame.
KC Corkery of Stanford battled Raul Morant-Rivas in three sets and advanced to the second round. He is now just one win away from earning ITA All-America honors for the fourth straight year. Corkery looks to become the 26th men's player in history to earn All-America honors all four years.
Radford's first ever NCAA qualifier, Martin Sayer, notched a first round win over Marcus Echtler of Stetson, 7-6(8), 6-3, to advance to the second round.
Tulsa sophomore Arnau Brugues topped Virginia Tech's Arvid Puranen. Brugues improves to 18-2 this season. On Monday he was named ITA National Player to Watch, which goes to a player expected to reach a national singles final during his career.