Nichols Reaches Quarters of ITA Summer Event
8/11/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Aug. 11, 2009
BLOOMINGTON, Ind.—Junior Zach Nichols reached the quarterfinal round of singles play at the 2009 ITA/USTA National Summer Championships this past weekend at Indiana's University Varsity Tennis Courts. Nichols was one of four Horned Frogs who competed in the tournament.
The ITA/USTA National Summer Championships are the conclusion of the ITA Collegiate Summer Circuit, which was played at 27 regional sites throughout the country last month. The National Summer Championships began on Saturday, Aug. 8 and concluded Tuesday.
Nichols, who earned the No. 9 overall seed in the men's singles bracket, won three consecutive matches during his run after receiving a bye in the tournament's opening round. Opponents dispatched on his way to a quarterfinal berth included: Memphis' KC Griffin (7-5, 6-2), Cal's Bijan Hejazi (6-1, 6-4) and Virginia's Drew Courtney (5-7, 6-3, 1-0[8]).
The victory over Courtney moved Nichols into the quarterfinals, where he dropped a nail-biter to Stanford's Alex Clayton (3-6, 7-6[9], 0-1[8]). Clayton entered the weekend as the tournament's No. 1 overall seed after finishing last spring as the nation's No. 18 player in the ITA singles rankings.
Other Frogs to qualify for the ITA National Summer Championships were juniors Christopher Price, Kelubia Mabatah and Paul Chappell.
Price opened his run with a first-round win over Indiana's Jeremy Langer (6-2, 6-2) before being bumped out the following match by Notre Dame's Mathew Johnson (6-1, 6-3). Chappell (6-7, 6-2, 1-0[8] and Mabatah (4-0, ret.) suffered exits in their only matches at the hands of Vanderbilt's Adam Baker and Virginia's Milo Johnson, respectively. Johnson since advanced all the way to the semifinal round.
Chappell and Price also paired up for the doubles draw of the tournament, winning their first match over Eastern Illinois' Jeff Rutherford and Kentucky's Chris Leeper, 8-2. The duo fell to Ohio State's Peter Kobelt and Steven Williams in Round 2, 8-5.
Nichols joined Chappell and Price in the doubles draw, although he was matched up with a player from another school in Ball State's Dalton Albertin. The pairing downed Purdue's Billy Heuer and Virginia's Milo Johnson in its first match, 8-3, before being eliminated in the second round by the Notre Dame tandem of Stephen Havens and Daniel Stahl, 8-5.
Players Mentioned
