May 24, 2002
Complete Singles and Doubles Results for Oliver Maiberger and Ryan Redondo in PDF Format
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SAN DIEGO - San Diego State's Oliver Maiberger is one of just two players in the country to advance to the quarterfinal round of the 2002 NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships. On Friday, the three-time All-American tennis player upset the fifth-ranked player in the nation in singles play and then joined teammate Ryan Redondo for a straight-set doubles victory in College Station, Texas.
With singles and doubles victories in the round of 16, Maiberger joined Stanford's David Martin as the only players to remain alive in both championships.
Maiberger became the first player in the program's history to advance to the NCAA quarterfinals with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 upset victory over fifth-ranked and sixth-seeded Andy Leber of Texas-Arlington in the NCAA Singles Championship on Friday morning.
Maiberger, ranked 26th nationally, is the only player from a school not affiliated with the Pacific-10 or Southeastern Conference to advance to the round of eight. He will face fourth-seeded and sixth-ranked Jesse Witten of Kentucky on Saturday.
Maiberger was able to continually break the hard-serving Leber throughout the match, recording five breaks of serve while being broken just twice.
"Leber is a proven winner that had only lost twice this season coming into the match," San Diego State coach John Nelson said. "He was serving at 120 miles per hour and Olie was sending back his serve harder than it was coming in. He was able to keep the ball deep and force him to play his game. I'm proud of him."
The Aztec junior took control of the first set by breaking Leber in the opening game. Maiberger built a 3-1 advantage and went up two breaks before claiming a 6-2 win.
"I broke him early and although he had some opportunities to break back, I was able to hold him off," Maiberger said. "His serve is his big weapon, and when I was able to handle it I think it got his attention and made him nervous."
Leber and Maiberger exchanged breaks in the second set before the Texas-Arlington player broke a four-all tie by holding serve and then breaking Maiberger to win the set.
Trailing 1-0 in the third, Maiberger won five consecutive games, breaking Leber twice while holding his own serve three times. The three-time All-American closed out the match on his serve to claim his first victory over a player ranked in the top 10 this season and improve to 29-9 on the campaign.
"I didn't really expect that much coming into the championship," Maiberger said. "I was not playing as well in singles as I had the two previous NCAA Tournaments. I expected to play good tennis but I didn't know how far that would take me. I know I can play with these guys and beat these guys. I'm not thinking about the score and I think some people are worried about the score and getting tied up in winning the title."
On Friday afternoon, Maiberger teamed with sophomore Ryan Redondo to post a 6-4, 7-6 victory over 42nd-ranked Matthias Mathaes and Prakash Venkataraman of Rice. In the last match to be completed on Friday, the Aztecs held serve in all 11 games, but were able to break the Owls' serve just once.
The Aztec pair trailed 2-1 in the first, but ran off three straight games en route to a 6-4 set win. Both pairs held serve throughout the second set, with the Aztecs claiming the tiebreaker to take the match.
The duo, which earned All-America honors on Tuesday, is 28-8 this season. They have won seven consecutive matches and have seven victories over doubles teams currently ranked in the top 10 nationally.
Maiberger and Redondo will battle 28th-ranked Phillip King and Michael Yani of Duke in tomorrow's quarterfinal match.
NCAA SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIP - SATURDAY'S QUARTERFINAL PARINGS
(1) Matias Boeker, Georgia vs. (46) Nick Rainey, Southern California
(13) John Fruttero, California vs. (28) David Martin, Stanford
(26) Oliver Maiberger, San Diego State vs. (6) Jesse Witten, Kentucky
(49) Ryan Haviland, Stanford vs. (25) Brandon Wagner, Georgia
NCAA DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIP - SATURDAY'S QUARTERFINAL PARINGS
(27) Andrew Colombo/Mark Kovacs, Auburn vs. (33) Thomas Haug/Harsh Mankad, Minnesota
(4) Michael Calkins/Amer Delic, Illinois vs. (6) Rodrigo Echagaray/Jose Zarhi, Texas
(28) Phillip King/Michael Yani, Duke vs. (3) Oliver Maiberger/Ryan Redondo, San Diego State
(37) James Cameron/John Chesworth, Furman vs. (2) Scott Lipsky/David Martin, Stanford
National ranking in parenthesis