LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Ivan Savkin has reached the quarterfinals at the Mountain West Fall Championships presented by Palm Casino Resort after prevailing over Hawaii's Soeren Grandke in an epic three-set (7-6(7-3), 5-7, 7-6(7-4)) Round of 16 match Thursday on Court 12 at the Darling Tennis Center. The seventh-seeded Savkin will next take on second-seeded Nikos Lehmann of Grand Canyon in a Friday quarterfinal at 9:30 a.m. PT.
Savkin finally closed out his Thursday victory after two hours and 35 minutes on his eighth match point but first of the third set. Savkin jumped out to a 3-0 lead and never trailed in a third-set tiebreaker. Grandke pulled to within a single point three times but Savkin turned him away each time before winning the final two points for a 7-4 victory. Savkin had never led the third set until winning the tiebreaker as he and Grandke had stayed on serve for the entire set other than back-to-back breaks by Grandke in game two to go ahead 2-0 and Savkin in game three.
After taking the first set also in a tiebreaker he never trailed, Savkin broke Grandke in a 40-love game to move ahead 5-4 in the second but Grandke fought back and staved off seven match points over the next three games to force a third and final set.
"It was crazy," head coach Eric Steidlmayer said. "For Ivan to be able to come back from having seven match points in the second set and find a way to win in the third is a tremendous effort."
Savkin was the only UC Davis player to advance Thursday despite the Aggies having five players in the Round of 16, where three of the other four were facing seeded opponents.
After winning the first set, Kaveh Taheri dropped the final two sets in his match against eighth-seeded Dario Ciobotaru of New Mexico (6-2, 5-7, 4-6), while Nadaul Cheam took Savkin's quarterfinal opponent Lehmann to tie breakers in each of their two sets (6-7(2-7), 6-7(4-7)). Cyrus Ahmad (1-6, 4-6) and Perry DiGiulio (1-6, 2-6) dropped two-set matches to New Mexico's Alberto Perez and Grand Canyon's sixth-seeded Andreas Loizas, respectively.
Ahmad and Cheam also fell in a quarterfinal doubles match on Thursday to UNLV's Samuel Pohl and Joel Gibson (7-8(0-8)).
"We were definitely pleased with the effort of the entire group," Steidlmayer said. "We know we can learn a lot from both winning and losing today."
Las Vegas faced periods of rain and high winds on Thursday but Friday's forecast calls for a high of 72 degrees under sunny skies and winds topping out at 5 mph.
Additional information about the event can be found by visiting the Mountain West Championships Central.
The singles and doubles champions from the five-day Mountain West Fall Championships that conclude Sunday will represent the league at the ITA Conference Masters Championships Nov. 5-8 in Rome, Georgia.
ABOUT UC DAVIS ATHLETICS
UC Davis Athletics represents one of the nation's premier public universities on the NCAA Division I stage, with more than 650 student-athletes competing across 25 sports, including 16 programs in the Mountain West Conference. Located in California's quintessential college town, UC Davis combines championship-level athletics with the academic excellence of the nation's No. 8 public research university and is home to the nation's No. 1 programs in agriculture, veterinary medicine and sustainability. With a growing national media presence, bold investments in facilities and the student-athlete experience, and a tradition of developing champions in competition, in the classroom and beyond, the Aggies are elevating UC Davis on a national stage.
For more information, visit ucdavisaggies.com.
