Sooners Make History at NCAAs Friday

NORMAN – The University of Oklahoma men's tennis team put up an historic day in the individual portion of the 2017 NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championships in Athens, Ga., on Friday.

Senior Alex Ghilea kicked the day off right when he defeated the singles tournament's No. 3 overall seed Petros Chrysochos in the round of the 16 to earn a berth in Saturday's quarterfinals.

Ghilea, who became Oklahoma's seventh singles All-American in program history (eighth overall) with a win in the round of 16 Thursday, beat No. 5 Chrysochos in straight sets, 7-6(5), 7-5.

"I'm playing more relaxed after getting the All-America title yesterday," Ghilea said. "I really wanted that. Today, I was playing a great opponent who's an incredible competitor. I just wanted to do my best and I tried to execute the game-plan the coaches made me work on, and it worked out.”

The singles victory was the 100^th of Ghilea's career, making him just the fifth Sooner in program history to reach the 100-win mark and tying him for fourth in career singles wins with Joe Braver (1981-1984).

“Winning 100 singles matches in college tennis is a milestone that not many people reach,” Oklahoma head coach Nick Crowell said. “That just shows a lot of hard work, dedication and consistency over a long period of time. It's great to see him making a run here in his last collegiate tournament.”

Ghilea has now won 11 straight singles matches dating back to March 18, and has won his last six matches all in straight sets. He has not lost a set in just shy of one month. Ghilea has defeat singles players ranked No. 18, No. 36 and No. 5, all in straight sets, in advancing to the quarterfinals.

The Oklahoma captain also becomes just the second Sooner in program history to advance as far as the quarterfinals at the NCAA Championships. Oliver Lorin, the program's first ever All-American, made it all the way to the semifinals round as a junior in 1987 (the first Big 8 player ever to do so).

"Winning 100 singles matches in college tennis is a milestone that not many people reach. That just shows a lot of hard work, dedication and consistency over a long period of time."
- Head Coach Nick Crowell

Ghilea came out firing on Friday. The senior from Neamt, Romania broke Chrysochos early and had set point at 5-4 in the first, but Wake Forest's top singles player broke Ghilea to force a tiebreaker. Ghilea carried a narrow lead throughout the breaker before putting it away, 7-5, on his third set point.

The second didn't see a hold until the seventh game of the set when Ghilea defended his serve for 4-3. Chrysochos would rally to put the match back on serve, but Ghilea broke again at 6-5 to seal the match.

“He returned really well off the backhand,” Crowell said. “He was able to neutralize Petros's serve and got some points off of that. He hit his forehand really well when he needed too—on the run. Late in the match he really opened it up and attacked and was able to put a lot of pressure on Petros. The match was very physical and the fitness came into play. Alex was superior in that part of the game and I think he just started to wear Petros down a bit.”

Ghilea will take on No. 8-seed Tom Fawcett of Stanford on Saturday at 1 p.m. CT with a trip to the national semifinals on the line. Fawcett ranks No. 11 nationally in singles.

The Sooners' had a spectacular day in doubles competition as well Friday. Senior Andrew Harris and junior Spencer Papa paired to take down the nation's sixth-ranked doubles pair of Mike Redlicki and Jose Salazar of Arkansas in the round of 16. OU's top pair, ranked No. 15, split the first two sets before winning the match in a 10-point superbreaker.

“Today Spencer and Andrew came out playing really well,” Crowell said. “They served big early in the match and got out to a quick first-set lead. In the second we lost a little energy and dropped some deuce points, but we started to come back and play a little bit better. Then in the tiebreaker it just came down to a couple points. We played a couple clutch points at the end and stepped up and made some big shots when we needed to.”

By virtue of their 6-2, 3-6, 1-0(7) win, Harris and Papa earned All-America honors. Their honors become Oklahoma's 16^th and 17^th in program history.

The honor is the first of Papa's career. He becomes the ninth Sooner in program history to earn All-America status. Harris becomes a two-time All-American. He also accomplished the feat in singles in 2015. Combined with Ghilea (singles), Harris and Papa's win gives OU three All-Americans for the year, marking the third time in the last six seasons that OU has recorded at least that many (2012, 2014, 2015).

“Having three All-Americans is such a testament to these guys and the hard work they've put in this year and the players they are,” Crowell said. “I'm just super excited for them personally. This is something no one can ever take away from these guys and I'm just happy to be here with them and helping them accomplish these goals.”

Harris and Papa will take on Martin Redlicki (the older brother of Mike Redlicki) and Evan Zhu of UCLA in the quarterfinals round Saturday at 3:30 p.m. CT. Redlicki and Zhu are the No. 2 overall seed in the doubles draw.