ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Winning the NCAA singles title was something Southern California’s Cecil Mamiit never even thought about.
Still, he became the first freshman to win it since Stanford’s John McEnroe in 1978, beating Fredrik Bergh of Fresno State 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 Sunday.
He is also the first Trojan to win the title since Robert Van’t Hof in 1980.
“I never really thought I was going to win the whole tournament,” Mamiit said. “I didn’t expect it going into school. I never looked at it as winning it as a freshman.”
The top-seeded doubles team of Justin Gimelstob and Srdjan Muskatirovic of UCLA defeated Texas Christian’s Ashley Fisher and Jason Weir-Smith 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-4 to win that title.
Mamiit, the No. 4 seed, rolled through the first set, breaking Bergh’s serve twice for a 5-1 lead. After Bergh regained one of the breaks to pull within 5-2, Mamiit broke again to take the set.
Mamiit then built a 4-1 lead in the second set, but Bergh rallied to break Mamiit in consecutive service games for a 5-4 lead before the match was halted for 52 minutes due to rain.
When play resumed, Bergh served out the second set to win 6-4 and force Mamiit to a third set for only the second time in his title run.
Mamiit broke Bergh in the eighth game of the final set to take a 5-3 lead and then held serve to claim the 13th NCAA singles title in Southern California history, second only to Harvard’s 16.
Florida sweeps women’s titles
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida, which won the NCAA Division I women’s tennis team championship last week, added the singles and doubles titles to become only the second school to sweep all three.
Senior Jill Craybas battled back to defeat top-seeded Kylie Hunt of Kansas 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 in the singles final Sunday, then Stephanie Nickitas and Dawn Buth beat Farley Taylor and Cristina Moros of Texas 6-1, 6-3 in doubles.
The Gators became the first team to sweep the three titles since Stanford first accomplished the feat in 1990.
“It doesn’t get any better than this,” Florida coach Andy Brandi said.
“I was hoping for a team championship. Winning the singles title was an amazing ending to my senior year,” Craybas said.
Hunt, who had won 22 straight matches and brought an overall record of 49-3 into the finals, used her powerful serve and attacking style to win a lengthy first set.