St. Louis, Mo. – It was a great day for the Washington University in St. Louis men's tennis program, as they took home both the ITA Central Regional singles and doubles titles on Sunday at Tao Tennis Center.
It's the first time ever in program history that the same WashU tennis player (
Abhi Ramireddy) has swept both the singles and doubles central regional titles.
To begin the day,
Phuc Huynh/
Abhi Ramireddy won the doubles championship, first cruising past Denison 8-3 in the semis, before fending off No. 1 seed CWRU in the title match by a score of 6-4, 7-5.
It was a tight back-and-forth battle in the finals, but the Bears were resilient and earned a massive win over James Hopper and Vishwa Aduru of Case Western Reserve.
With WashU leading 5-3 in the second, the Spartans' doubles team rallied back and evened up the match at 5-5.
However, the Bears broke the Spartans on serve and after a changeover, regrouped and closed out the match as Huynh served it out to seal the title.
In singles action, Ramireddy got the job done again without dropping a set on the day. The senior went 4-0 on Sunday and posted an incredible 11-0 record for the weekend in singles and doubles combined.
"It was a great weekend for us, the last two days in particular, we couldn't have asked for better weather," said Head Coach
Roger Follmer. "I'm really proud of how our team competed. Abhi and Phuc had a great effort in doubles and then Abhi played great in both the semis and finals in singles against two great opponents."
Ramireddy first advanced past Ansh Shah of CWRU 6-4, 6-3 and then defeated Emil Grantcharov of Chicago 6-3, 6-1 in the championship. Ramireddy's gritty effort was on full display in the title match with crafty drop shots, solid service returns, and fantastic serving.
"We had some good preparation going into this weekend from our clay court tournament at River Forest a week ago and our UTR event at Dwight Davis earlier in September," Follmer stated. "Most of the guys were able to play in both of those events and get some quality matches in."
Both Huynh/Ramireddy will next advance to the ITA Cup as they earn an automatic bid with the doubles title. The duo will next compete again in Rome, Ga. in mid-October.
In addition, Ramireddy, who played in the ITA Cup last year with
Daniel Li, will also play in the singles draw after earning an auto bid after capturing the singles championship.
"We're excited and looking forward to it," said Follmer. "It's a really cool opportunity to play against the other regional winners across the country. Abhi got to go down last year, and he gained valuable experience from it, so he's pretty familiar with where we're headed next."
Draws for the ITA Cup in October will be announced in the coming weeks.
