Georgia outlasts rain, UCLA to advance to semifinals

It was the longest of days at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.

Seven hours and 40 minutes transpired before No. 13 seed Georgia emerged victorious in a 4-2 win over No. 5 seed UCLA in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships. Two hours into Saturday’s match, which began at 4 p.m., the Bulldogs (22-7) and Bruins (22-6) were forced to halt play due to heavy rain coming through the Athens area.

With it being an outdoor tournament, Georgia’s event management, sports information, promotions and facilities teams helped squeegee the rain water off of the courts. It took roughly over a two-and-a-half-hour span to get this done once the rain subsided.

The teams hopped back on the courts after a five-hour delay at 11 p.m. with Georgia trailing 1-0 after dropping the doubles point. Georgia then picked up its four points within an hour's worth of time. The clinching match came fittingly on Georgia’s famed Court 4 as Jan Zielinski secured the match with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Maxime Cressy.

Zielinski noted that the first set got away from him. But with Cressy playing an aggressive style of tennis, Zielinski stuck with the game plan before and after the rain delay to roll through the second and third sets.

"I couldn’t do anything in the first set but I came out with a lot of energy in the second set," Zielinski said. "I broke him early in the set, I think if I remember. I think he broke down in the final set. We came out with a lot of energy. Everyone, Walker, Robert, we took over the job in 'the pit.' That was awesome."

During the five-hour delay, head coach Manuel Diaz wanted to make sure his players would be fresh for a late return to the courts. Fortunate for his squad, the team dinner arrived an hour early, so his players were able to eat right away at 6 p.m.

The players went back to the team hotel, spent some time with the training staff and went over strategy with the coaches.

"It was a matter of getting the guys to get to the point mentally and emotionally that they were when they left off, just at the start," Diaz said. "We didn’t have a 30-minute window to get our rhythm. We knew UCLA is an aggressive team. If we had taken our foot off the gas they would have run over us."

Six minutes into the re-start, Georgia got on the board with a Wayne Montgomery win on Court 2. Montgomery held a 30-love lead while leading 5-4 in the second set. Able to finish the game off, Montgomery recorded a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Evan Zhu.

Eight minutes later, Georgia’s Walker Duncan enthusiastically celebrated a victory on Court 5. Duncan outlasted Austin Rapp 6-3, 7-6 (1) to give the Bulldogs their second point. Duncan actually held a match point at 6-5, 40-40 before play was halted. Back on the court at 11 p.m., Duncan was unable to win the point but steamrolled through the tiebreaker to pick up the victory.

"Having to wait a long time, we were all really fired up," Duncan said. "It didn’t affect us too much. The rain delay helped us get our mindset and get our game-plans going."

After a tough first set in the daylight, Georgia’s Robert Loeb cruised to a victory in his second set against Joseph DiGiulio. Loeb claimed a 7-6 (4), 6-2 win to give Georgia its third point of the dual match.

UCLA’s lone singles victory came on Court 1, with Martin Redlicki defeating Nathan Ponwith 6-4, 1-6, 6-2.

In total, Georgia’s victory was finished 40 minutes once the five-hour weather delay ended.

Georgia was unable to capture the doubles point for the second consecutive tournament match. UCLA’s Ben Goldberg and Cressy squeaked past Montgomery and Duncan 6-4 on Court 3 to clinch the first point of the dual match. The Bruins also got a win on Court 2 om Rapp and DiGiulio, who edged Ponwith and Emil Reinberg 6-3.  

Georgia’s top-ranked tandem of Zielinski and Loeb played a tight match between UCLA’s third-ranked duo of Redlicki and Zhu. The deciding point game in the eighth game, with it deadlocked at 40-40. The Bruins elected to serve to Zielinski, who hit a crushing return of serve to win the game and secure the break. Up 5-3, Loeb closed the set out on his serve.

Georgia will now head to the NCAA Championships semifinals and face No. 9 seed North Carolina, which upset No. 1 seed Wake Forest 4-2. Diaz said he hopes for a better doubles performance in his team's upcoming match.

"We didn’t play our very best at No. 2 and 3 doubles and that got us in trouble," Diaz said. "They came out and really asserted themselves. Our No. 1 team played well today. We just got to pick it up a little bit in doubles. The way we’re fighting in singles, we’re making it hard. We’re competing in all the spots and it gives us a chance."

This story was originally published May 20, 2017 at 11:42 PM with the headline "Georgia outlasts rain, UCLA to advance to semifinals."