Miami Buzzes Past Georgia Tech, 6-1
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami men’s tennis team opened the Atlantic Coast Conference season off on the right foot, cruising past the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, 6-1, Friday afternoon at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center.
Opening with the team’s first doubles point of the 2021 season, the Hurricanes never looked back to improve to 2-2 (1-0 ACC) on the year.
“It’s very tough to win ACC matches, home or away, so we are very excited to beat Georgia Tech,” Miami head coach Aljosa Piric said. “They are a good, young team, that is only going to get better as the year goes on. They are an awesome team and are superbly coached, we have a lot of respect for them.
“We are excited to get a W, we played well and competed hard,” Piric added. “We played well under pressure on certain courts and won our first doubles point of the year. So, a lot of positives. We are going to build on this and recover tonight, get a light hit tomorrow and get ready to play Clemson on Sunday.”
Competing alongside one another for just the second time this spring, seniors Bojan Jankulovski and Stephen Madonia secured Miami’s first win of the day, topping Chen Dong and Brandon McKinney, 6-2.
Moments later, No. 22 Franco Aubone and Benjamin Hannestad defeated No. 31 Marcus McDaniel and Pablo Schelcher, 6-3.
The final doubles match remained unfinished, as Stefan Milicevic and Adria Soriano Barrera held a 5-4 advantage against No. 41 Keshav Chompra and Andres Martin.
“The energy was great today,” Piric said. “We honestly had a complete turnaround in the team energy from our last couple matches to this one. It was great to see. It certainly was the x-factor today.”
The energy remained high heading into singles, as the Hurricanes secured five of the six opening sets.
In a battle between recent ACC Player of the Week winners and top-60 singles players, No. 34 Soriano Barrera dominated from start to finish. Ultimately, the Barcelona, Spain, native quickly doubled Miami’s lead with a, 6-2, 6-2, win over No. 59 Martin.
In the lone set back, McDaniel outlasted Hannestad, 6-1, 6-4.
On court 6, Oren Vasser placed Miami in front 3-1, defeating Brandon Freestone, 6-1, 6-3. Moments later, Aubone clinched the match for the Canes with a, 6-3, 6-2, straight-set win over McKinney.
With the win, Aubone improved to 4-0 in 2021 singles matches.
With the overall contest clinched, the final two matches were played out with a third-set tiebreaker.
Court 4 was the first to conclude, with Milicevic earning the hard-fought, 6-3, 3-6, 1-0 (10-7), triumph over Schelcher.
Jankulovski later sealed the 6-1 victory over Georgia Tech (5-3, 0-1 ACC), topping Chopra, 6-4, 5-7, 1-0 (10-7).
Up next, the Hurricanes will return to the Neil Schiff Tennis Center Sunday at noon to take on the Clemson Tigers.
