Complete Singles and Doubles Results for Oliver Maiberger and Ryan Redondo in PDF Format
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May 24, 2002
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State men's tennis player Oliver 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 in College Station, Texas.
Maiberger, ranked 26th nationally, is the only player not from a Pacific 10 or Southeastern Conference school 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."
Maiberger will join teammate Ryan Redondo for their round of 16 match in the NCAA Doubles Championship at 2:15 p.m. PDT today. The Aztec pair, third-ranked and third-seeded in the championship, will face 42nd-ranked Matthias Mathaes and Prakash Venkataraman of Rice in today's second round.
Maiberger and Redondo, which won the Omni Hotels Indoor Championship in November, posted a 6-4, 6-4 victory over 18th-ranked Matias Boeker and Bo Hodge of Georgia in the first round of the 32-team tournament yesterday.
The duo, which earned All-America honors on Tuesday, is 27-8 this season. They have won seven consecutive matches and have seven victories over doubles teams currently ranked in the top 10 nationally.
NCAA SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIP - SATURDAY'S QUARTERFINAL PAIRINGS
(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
National ranking in parenthesis