CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -
Advik Mareedu came from way behind in singles, and went to a tiebreaker in the third set in doubles with
Caleb Settles, but managed to win both to stay alive on the first day of the NCAA Division III Individual Championships on Saturday at the McCallie School.
Mareedu trailed Maximo Llamas of Kenyon 5-2 in the second set after already dropping the first set 6-2. He dug down, though, and was able to get back level after three straight games were tied 30-30, leaving Llamas two points from victory, before Mareedu won back-to-back points each time.
After Llamas went ahead 6-5, he again had the score 30-30, two points from a win, but Mareedu was able to hold to get it to a tiebreaker. Once again, he fell way behind, as Llamas won the first four points, and once again he responded, winning three straight points to get it to 4-3, and then four more in a row to win the tiebreaker 7-5.
The third set once again saw Mareedu fall behind, this time 5-3, but he held to get to 5-4 and then had a love service break to level the set 5-5. After holding to go up 6-5, he broke again after the score was tied 30-30 with the final two points, to earn a tough 4-6, 7-6, 7-5 win.
After surviving the opening round scare, Mareedu found his groove in his second match, winning 6-1, 6-2 over Julian Wu to advance through to tomorrow's quarterfinals.
In doubles, Mareedu and Settles cruised to a 6-2 win in the first set against Llamas and Juosaz Cioladis of Kenyon, but then dropped the second set by the same 6-2 score. The Stags were up 5-2 in the third, but were broken back up 5-3 and the match got back on serve.
After the Stags held at love, Kenyon forced it to a tiebreaker, and Settles and Mareedu were able to forge ahead 5-2. Kenyon won the next two points to put some pressure on the Stags, but they responded with the last two points for the 7-4 win and the right to advance to tomorrow's quarterfinals.
Mareedu now has 40 singles wins this season after his 2-0 day, standing 40-2 this year after a 41-1 record a year ago. He needs one more win to tie his own CMS singles record, which he can do against Shrikeshav Murugesan of Chicago, who he just defeated in the national championship match two days ago, although the Maroons were able to take the title 4-3.
