Starting the Season in Atlanta

The college tennis season is underway. On a weekend visit to Atlanta two weeks ago, I decided to head over to midtown to see the Georgia Tech men's opener vs the University of South Carolina Upstate followed by a match against Wofford.

Kenny Thorne is fielding a young, talented team this season. The Jackets have five sophomores, two freshmen and one junior and they got off to a good start against USC Upstate.

Kevin King and Doug Kenny gave the Jackets a 1-0 lead with an 8-4 win at #2. The other two matches were tight. Ryan Smith and Austin Roebuck went back and forth before taking the match 9-7 giving GT the doubles point. Shortly after that win, the number one team of Guillermo Gomez and Eliot Potvin finished off another tight match winning 9-7.

Tech was in control during singles play and the best match of the day turned out to be at #5, where the lone junior from Athens, Georgia, Austin Roebuck, played Arnaldo Lovera. This was a close match from the start. Lovera won the first set 7-6. Roebuck was down most of the second set and it looked like it would be a straight sets defeat. Roebuck got a late break and was able to send it to a tie break, where he won it 9-7 and send the match to a third set. Since GT had already wrapped up the match, the two played a 10 point tie break. This tie break was tight too and Roebuck had to fight to finally get up a mini-break. He pulled it out 12-10 and the Jackets won the match 5-2. Freshman Kevin King played at number one singles and won his first match 6-3, 6-2.

I expected the second match of the day to be even tighter, as Wofford is always a tough competitor and a consistent leader in the Southern Conference. I knew things would be different in this match when GT won at #2 doubles, 8-0. The GT ones and threes were also cruising along and they won respectively, 8-5 and 8-4. I was only able to stay for the doubles as I had to make my way back to Charlotte, but I was not surprised to learn later that the Ramblin Wreck swept the singles matches as well and took the match 7-0.

While the team is young, I think they have some really good talent, especially in freshman Kevin King. It is going to be interesting to see how this team develops over the 2009 season. There was a nice crowd on hand for an opening match. I talked briefly with Kenny Thorne and let him know I'd be out to cheer the team on at South Carolina the following weekend.

Time.