ORLANDO, Fla. – University of Pennsylvania men's tennis doubles team
Edoardo Graziani and
Kevin Zhu won their Round of 32 match at the NCAA Doubles Championship Wednesday afternoon over Florida State's Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc and Joshua Dous-Karpenschief in straight sets.
Graziani and Zhu took seven of the first eight points of the match, then rallied from 0-40 down for a 3-0 lead in the first set. Florida State rallied to knot the match at 4-all. After holding serve for a 5-4 lead, Graziani and Zhu broke Cornut-Chauvinc and Dous-Karpenschief, taking a one-set lead.
The second set opened with each team breaking the other's first service game, then each side holding serve over the next six games, with the set once again getting to 4-4. The rest of the set (and the match) played out like the first, with Penn holding serve for a 5-4 lead, then breaking the Seminoles to claim the win.
Graziani and Zhu will now face Illinois' Hunter Heck and Karlis Ozolins; the Fighting Illini pair advanced following a 10-point super tiebreaker victory over the the 25th-ranked team from Notre Dame, Sebastian Dominko and Connor Fu, after the teams split the first two sets.
Heck and Ozolins were 12-3 in the regular season and 5-1 in Big 10 competition. The pair primarily played in the No. 1 doubles spot where they went 8-3.
The date and time of first serve are still to be announced.
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