Orlando, Fla.– No. 42 Murphy Cassone battled his way through a match-decider third set to defeat No. 11 Cannon Kingsley of Ohio State 6-1, 6-7 (7-3), 7-6 (7-2) to advance himself into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Men’s Singles Tournament. With Cassone’s victory, he became the first to achieve All-American status for Sun Devil Men’s Tennis since the program’s return in 2018 and first to receive the All-American singles honor since Sargis Sargsian in 1995.
The Kansas native reached a career high of 20 wins and went 3 for 5 in break points for his third NCAA post-season win on Monday night at the USTA National Campus.
“It was an incredible effort by Murphy today as Cannon has been one of the best players in college tennis the past four seasons,” head coach Matt Hill said. “Both athletes raised their level in the second and third sets making it one of the highest quality matches we’ve seen in some time. It will be another tough test tomorrow, but right now it’s a great day to be a Sun Devil.”
Cassone will continue his postseason run tomorrow in the Round of 16 against No. 61 Micah Braswell from the University of Texas TBD on Wednesday, May 24. Please note weather has been obstructing the match schedule.
The sophomore grabbed the first point of the match with Kinglsey quickly countered. Cassone blew the 2022 ITA Singles All-American out of the water in the first set, claiming five straight points to take the set 6-1.
Kinglsey began the second set to give a momentum shift, but Cassone kept himself within reach creating a point by point set. It came down to the last point which ultimately favored the Buckeye.
Cassone owned the third set, clocking the first point and clapped back every time Kingsley attempted to overthrow the Sun Devil’s lead. The final point of the match was not an easy defeat, but Cassone came out on top.
This season Cassone was named to the Pac-12 All-Conference First Team as he was absolutely dominant in the final weeks of the regular season. Cassone was a perfect 6-0 in April and never lost more than two matches back-to-back during the year. Of his 17 wins in the regular season, just five went to a third set. He finished the regular season 17-6 (8-2 Pac-12) in singles play, and has a 3.1 ITF World Tennis Number.
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