CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Senior tennis players Ben Marks and Christian Romanzini wrapped up the three-day UVA Fall Classic on Sunday with some stellar performances to cap off a very successful weekend for the Spartan duo.
Marks won a pair of matches against foes from Old Dominion and William & Mary at the Snyder Tennis Center, while Romanzini bested his opponent from Virginia also on Sunday. Marks also won against a Maryland opponent on Saturday, while the duo also defeated a Virginia Tech tandem Friday in doubles play.
On Sunday, Marks twice had to rally after dropping the first set. Against Wesley Barrett of ODU, Marks fell, 6-2, before a 7-6(4) victory in the second set and an 11-9 win in the third-set tiebreaker. Then, against William & Mary's Charlie Ghriskey, Marks fell just short in the first set, 7-6(5), before again rebounding with a 7-5 win in the second set. He then won the third set tiebreaker, 10-8, to finish fifth in the top bracket at the tournament.
Marks opened up singles play on Saturday by taking down Maryland's Jan Surovic after again having to rally from a one-set deficit. Surovic earned that opening win, 6-4, before Marks turned it on in the second and third sets, 7-5, 6-2. Wayne Harrell of Liberty then handed him his only singles loss of the weekend in the next match. Harrell won the first set, 6-3, before Marks shut him out in the second, 6-0. Harrell proved to be the slightly better player on the day with a 7-5 win in the third set.
Romanzini struggled in the early going in singles action, dropping a 6-1, 6-0 decision to Leo Lapentti of George Washington and then a 6-2, 6-0 setback to Zach Pine of Virginia Tech. On Sunday, Romanzini earned redemption with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Virginia's Reese Milner.
The two players opened up the tournament in doubles, where the duo first fell to CJ Griffin and Chris Hasyn of Penn State, 8-4. Marks and Romanzini stormed back to down the duo of Zach Pine and Jon Pine of Virginia Tech, 8-6, before suffering a loss by the same score to Patrick O'Keefe and Joe Mills of Radford.
The fall schedule for both the men's and women's tennis teams will conclude this weekend at the ITA Regional. The men head back to Charlottesville, while the women will complete at ODU.
