Seven out of eight top seeds alive

CHRIS HUMPHREYS

Published: June 12, 2008

There were two obvious trends present in the first day of action at Central Virginia Tennis Tournament at Oakwood Country Club on Thursday.

First being that seven of the eight seeded players in the Men’s Open Singles Draw advanced to quarterfinals.

The second was that of the eight players to advance to the quarterfinals five played or are playing collegiate tennis for Atlantic Coast Conference schools.

The top seed and the only returning champion still alive in the draw, Brett Ross graduated from Wake Forest in 2006 and a few weeks later claimed a CVITT title.

“I took a year off last year and was traveling in Europe but it’s good to be back,” Ross said. “It’s a stronger field and there’s a little bit more money, which is always good.”

Ross cruised into the quarters with 6-0, 6-0 first round win over Christopher Radke and a 6-0, 6-2 victory over John Valenti.

“I was just trying to get used to the courts,” Ross said.

“I didn’t come in early to practice but by the end of the day was I was feeling pretty good about the way I was hitting.”

Second-seeded Treat Huey, who was a senior this past year at the University of Virginia, advanced, as did third-seeded Albert Larregola, a Virginia Tech senior, and the fourth-seeded, Ted Angelinos, another UVa senior. Fifth-seeded William Noblitt, who played at N.C. State also reacged the quarterfinals with a pair of victories on Thursday.

The only unseeded player to crash the quarterfinals was Jared Pinsky.

Pinksy, a freshman at Duke this past season, rallied from being down 4-2 in the first set to knock off eighth-seeded Trevor Spracklin 6-4, 6-1.

“I played pretty well,” Pinsky said. “Trevor is a great player and I just tried to stay patient and neutralize his serve.

“I was a little tight there (at the start of the match). I wasn’t moving that well or playing as well as can. I just relaxed a little bit and started going after the ball more.”

Spracklin was the only other player in this year’s draw to have previously claimed at CVITT championship.

The only second-round match that went three sets was Noblitt’s victory over Patrick Daciek 4-6, 6-4. 6-0.

Daciek won a hotly contested first set and was up 4-1 in the second set before Noblitt rallied to win 11 consecutive games to close out the match.

Though, it did appear that Daciek was suffering from legs cramps at the end of the second set.

The other two seeded players that advanced to the quarterfinals are the sixth seed and Radford University senior, Martin Sayer, and seventh-seeded Jason Pinsky.

Jason is the older brother of Jared and just finished his senior season at the University of Pennsylvania.

“It was good day and nice way to start,” Jason Pinsky said.

Jared, who played in the CVITT in 2007, got Jason involved in this year’s tournament.

“(Jared) recommended it,” Jason said. “(Jared) said “it is not a only great tennis event but the whole town rallies around it and that’s very nice.”

Said Jared: “I had a good time last and decided to come back.

“I love it here.”

The top half of the Men’s Open Draw quarterfinals will begin at 9 a.m. The bottom half of the draw is scheduled for 11:30. The Men’s Open Doubles also begins play this afternoon.

The two players with local ties that were in action on Thursday were Kenan Bell and Rodrigo Sarlo.

Bell, who played at Liberty University, won his qualifying match over Martin Brown 6-3, 6-3 but was bounced in the first round by Angelinos 6-0, 6-1.

Sarlo, a former standout for the Brookville Bees fell in his qualifying match to Radke 6-2, 6-3.