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Pac-10 Tennis Championships - Day Two Recap
April 25, 2008 Ojai, Calif. -- A banner day for the USC Trojans as all four men's semifinalists will hail from Troy, while the women's Pac-10 singes title is still up for grabs as the Pac-10 Tennis Championships continued today. On a day dominated by doubles action, the Men of Troy stole the thunder, capturing all of their quarterfinal matches and remaining undefeated in the tournament. Top seeded Robert Farah dropped California's Pedro Zerbini in three sets, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2, to set up a semifinal match against teammate Jaak Poldma, who upset fifth-seeded Mathieu Dehane of UCLA, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2. On the other side of the bracket, USC's No. 2 player and second seed in the tournament, Kaes Van't Hof, downed UCLA's Jeremy Drean and will face fellow Trojan Gary Sacks, who was victorious over UCLA's Nicolas Meister, 6-3, 7-6(6). "I am very pleased, we always take this tournament seriously and it's special to be a part of. USC Head Coach Peter Smith said. "I grew up playing in this tournament, Kaes grew up with it and my assistants also did. We have a very strong connection to it." In the main event of the day, two sets of doubles matches, four different schools will be represented in the semifinals after the draw shook out. Top-seeded Farah and Van't Hof advanced easily, losing only five games in their two matches. Second seeded pair T.J. Bellama and Matt Brooklyn also rolled in their two matches, defeating Cal's Pierre Mouillon and Kalim Stewart 8-5 before besting Oregon's Alexander Cornelisen and Marcos Verdasco, 8-4. Arizona's pair of Bruno Alcala and Claudio Christen puled off the upset of UCLA's third-seeded Nicolas Meister and Harel Srugo, 8-5, to advance to the semifinals. Rounding out the semifinals are California's pair of Geoffrey Chizevar and Pedro Zerbini, who fought Washington's Patrik Fischer and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan to a 9-7 victory. While the men's story may have been a single team's dominance, on the women's side the field is even more wide open as two of the top four seeds fell in their quarterfinal matches. No. 1 seeded Hilary Barte of Stanford was forced to retire due to injury in her match against California's Claire Ilcinkas, while No. 3 seeded Marina Cossou fell to an inspired No. 7 seed in Nadia Abdala of Arizona State, 6-0, 6-2. Abdala will take on No. 2 seeded Amanda Fink of USC, the highest seeded player left in the main draw as she defeated California's Cristina Visico, 6-0, 6-1. Ilcinkas will face the No. 4 seed, UCLA's Riza Zalameda, in the semifinals after the senior eked out a 7-5, 7-5 victory over USC's Gabriela Niculescu. In the women's doubles tournament the No. 1 team in the nation, UCLA's Riza Zalameda and Tracy Lin fell in the first round to Arizona State's Micaela Hein and Kelcy McKenna, 8-5. The Sun Devil pair was then bounced in the quarterfinals by California's Cossou and Ilcinkas in an entertaining 9-7 win for the Golden Bears. Facing the Cal pair will be ASU's Jessica Leitch and Wendy Pilecka, who defeated Golden Bears Bojana Bobusic and Cristina Visico in the quarterfinals, 8-4. The other semifinal will match the only two seeds left in the draw as USC's No. 2 seeded pair of Niculescu and Fink will take on California's Susie Babos and Stephanie Kusano. The Trojan pair appears the hottest after rolling through their first two opponents by identical 8-2 scores while the Golden Bears pair enters the match off of an 8-5 victory over Stanford's Whitney Deason and Jessica Nguyen. The Ojai Tournament continues tomorrow with both men's and women's doubles and singles semifinal matches. Pac-10 Men' Singles Championship -- Day Two Pac-10 Men's Invitational -- Day Two Pac-10 Men's Doubles Championship -- Day One Round of 16: Pac-10 Men's Invitational Doubles -- Day One Quarterfinals Round of 16: Pac-10 Women's Singles Championships -- Day Two Quarterfinals Pac-10 Women's Doubles Championships -- Day One Quarterfinals Round of 16 Pac-10 Women's Doubles Invitational -- Day One Round of 16: Pac-10 Women's Backdraw:
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