Styler, Fenty Advance to NCAA Quarterfinals

Styler, Fenty Advance to NCAA Quarterfinals

Site: Lake Nona, Fla. (USTA National Campus)

Event: NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships (Day 3 of 6)

Score: No Team Scoring

Next U-M Event: Thursday, May 25 — at NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships (Lake Nona, Fla.), TBA

LAKE NONA, Fla. — For the first time since the NCAA switched to its current format of championships in 1977, the University of Michigan men’s tennis team has a pair of singles quarterfinalists in Ondrej Styler and Andrew Fenty as the third round of action wrapped up on Wednesday (May 24) at the USTA National Campus. Fenty also teamed up with Gavin Young to advance to the second round of the doubles championship with a straight-set win.

Styler punched his ticket to the quarterfinals for the first time in his career behind a grind-it-out 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) win over Columbia’s Michael Zheng. He weathered early breaks in both sets before prevailing in a pair of tiebreakers.

Styler fell in a 2-0 hole to start the match, staving off three break points in the third game to be down just one break at 2-1. He grabbed a 15-40 lead on Zheng’s serve in the sixth game of the set, but Zheng saved the first two break points. Styler converted the third, coming in for a volley winner to get back on serve at 3-3. The set stayed there the rest of the way, heading to a breaker. Styler won the first two points and led 4-2 at the changeover. He cashed in on his third set point, winning 7-5.

The second set began eerily similar to the first as he fell in a 3-0 hole. He held at 3-1 and then broke back in the next game to get back on serve at 3-2. Styler held in the next game, again setting up a string of holds between the two players to send it to a tiebreaker. Neither player led by more than one point the whole breaker as Styler converted his first match point at 6-5, forcing a Zheng forehand long to wrap up the victory.

Fenty advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time in his career, getting a 6-2, 7-6 (3) win over No. 34 James Trotter. In the first set, Fenty broke at 3-2 and coasted to a 6-2 win.

Fenty broke to start the second set and eventually grabbed a 2-0 lead. Trotter answered with two straight games to get back on serve at 2-2, as Fenty lost the deuce point…