Ohio State
ITA National Indoor Championships
Buchanan, Rola Advance in Singles, Doubles at National Indoors – Ohio State Buckeyes
11/3/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Nov. 3, 2011
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Blaz Rola and Chase Buchanan, members of the Ohio State men’s tennis team, advanced to the doubles quarterfinals of the 2011 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships Thursday. The prestigious event is being held at the USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.
The Buckeye tandem, who earned the No. 2 seed in the draw, earned a bye in the first round before defeating Matt Siow and Matt Spindler of Princeton 8-5 in the second round. Buchanan and Rola will attempt to advance to the semifinals when they hit the courts against Duke’s Henrique Cunha and Chris Mengel Friday. The Blue Devil pair downed John Collins and Maros Horny of Maryland 8-3 to earn the right to meet the Ohio State duo.
Buchanan and Rola clinched the automatic berth with a victory against Georgia Tech’s Kevin King and Juan Spir to win the doubles championship at the D’Novo/ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla., Oct. 9. King and Spir were the top-seed at the event and currently are the No. 1 seed this week as well.
The two Buckeyes also advanced in the singles portion of the National Indoors championships. Buchanan defeated USC’s Ray Sarmiento 6-4, 6-4. The win for Buchanan, the sixth-seed in the tournament, avenged a previous loss against the Trojan, who beat the Buckeye in the singles draw of the NCAA tournament last season in Stanford, Calif.
“I had a better attitude out there,” Buchanan said when comparing the two matches, “I was a little more positive, a little more intense and I fought a little better here. That makes a huge difference.”
The New Albany, Ohio, native who earned an at-large bid to compete in the event, will meet the winner of Texas A&M’s Alexis Klegou and Haig Schneiderman of Columbia Friday.
Rola earned the automatic bid into the singles draw of the tournament following an impressive showing at the 2011 ITA Midwest Regionals in Columbus, Ohio, that culminated with the Ptuj, Slovenia, native capturing his second consecutive regional championship. The sophomore Buckeye and third seed in the bracket handed Pepperdine’s Finn Tearney a 6-2, 7-6 (2) loss in the opening round. Rola, who is the reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Year will meet conference foe Evan King of Michigan Friday with a trip to the quarterfinals at stake. Rola defeated King in the Midwest Regional Championships final Oct. 17.
