Nov. 7, 2012
THE FLATS – Georgia Tech’s Juan Spir and Vikram Hundal are headed to New York to compete in this weekend’s USTA/ITA National Collegiate Indoor Championships at the Billie Jean National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadow, N.Y., the culminating event to the fall collegiate tennis season.
Spir, a senior from Medellin, Colombia, and Hundal, a sophomore from Alpharetta, Ga., qualified for this national championship by winning the doubles championship of the USTA/ITA Southeast Regional last month in Tallahassee. They are in a 20-team field which includes the champions from each of the Division I regionals around the country.
First-round matches are scheduled Thursday morning, with quarterfinals Friday, semifinals Saturday and the championship match Sunday.
The Tech teammates had never competed together in doubles before, but won their first two matches of the regional at love, then defeated the No. 4, 7 and 3 seeds in succession. Spir, who began the season with 75 doubles win in his career, has tied Sergio Aquirre for the Tech record in doubles wins with 82.
“The USTA is hosting this national championship event at the US Open site for the 3rd year in a row and fortunately Georgia Tech has had representation there each year,” said Tech coach Kenny Thorne. “You win and you earn a national title. Juan and Vikram have a great opportunity up in New York. The competition is the best in the nation so they will have their work cut out for them. They have been playing very well and know what to do so it will simply come down to execution.”
Hosted by Columbia University, this prestigious event features a 32-player singles draw and a 20-team doubles draw for men and women.
Gaining automatic entry into the tournament are champions from the USTA/ITA Division I Regional Championships held across the country in October, winners of the USTA/ITA National Small College Super Bowl, and the consolation champions, doubles finalists, men’s singles quarterfinalists and women’s singles semifinalists from the ITA Men’s and Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships.
