Minnesota Upsets No. 14 Alabama

May 12, 2001

Coral Gables, FL – Third-seeded Minnesota (13-11) rebounded after dropping the doubles point to win four straight singles matches and upset second-seeded Alabama (19-10), 4-1, in the opening match of the 2001 NCAA Men’s Tennis Regional Championship held at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center in Coral Gables, FL.

Minnesota advances to the regional championship against the winner of the Miami-Charleston Southern match Sunday at noon. The Regional Champion advances to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen, May 19-22 in Athens, GA.

Alabama, ranked 14th in the nation, looked to be on its way to the championship match after recording easy victories at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles to clinch the doubles point.

But the 46th ranked Golden Gophers had other ideas.

Minnesota’s Alekesy Zharinov got the ball rolling with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Alabama’s Stephen Mitchell at No. 4 singles. Chris Wettengel then recorded a 6-3, 7-6(3) win over Chris McRea at No. 5 singles to put Minnesota ahead 2-1.

The Golden Gophers then took a commanding 3-1 advantage when Jon Svensson posted a 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 win over Chris Gostek at No. 3 singles.

Needing to win just one of the remaining three matches, Minnesota clich?d the victory with a win at No. 1 singles where 44th-ranked Harsh Mankad upset 15th-ranked Maxim Belski in straight sets 6-3, 7-5.

Match No. 1
No. 3 Minnesota 4, No. 2 Alabama 1

Doubles (The team that wins two of three doubles matches receives one point.):
No. 1 Mankad/Duenas (UM) vs. Belski/Narla (UA) DNF
No. 2 Mitchell/Boyles (UA) d. Svensson/Parry (UM) 8-6
No. 3 Gostek/McRea (UA) d. Robertson/Wettengel (UM) 8-3

Singles:
No. 1 Harsh Mankad (UM) d. Maxim Belski (UA) 6-3, 7-5
No. 2 Jorge Duenas (UM) vs. Susheel Narla (UA) DNF
No. 3 Jon Svensson (UM) d. Chris Gostek (UA) 6-3, 2-6, 6-1
No. 4 Alekesy Zharinov (UM) d. Stephen Mitchell (UA) 6-4, 6-2
No. 5 Chris Wettengel (UM) d. Chris McRea (UA) 6-3, 7-6 (3)
No. 6 Eric Robertson (UM) vs. Christian Brodersen (UA) DNF