CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Swarthmore College's
Michael Melnikov cruised to a semifinal victory at the NCAA Men's Tennis Singles Championship on Monday and earned the opportunity to play for a national championship for the first time in his historic career.
Melnikov downed Amherst College's Andreas Sillaste 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the NCAA final. The second-seeded Melnikov will square off with top-seeded Advik Mareedu of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges, the defending champion, in a highly-anticipated matchup for the national title. It will be the fourth career meeting between the pair with Mareedu owning a 2-1 advantage. The duo have already met twice this season, with Melnikov earning the victory in the last match at the ITA Indoor National Championship in February.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Melnikov nearly picked up an opening break, holding a 40-30 advantage before Sillaste came back to take two straight points and hold serve. However, the Garnet standout responded with three consecutive games to take a 3-1 lead. Sillaste won another deuce point to hold serve and stay in the set, trailing 3-2. Melnikov proved too much to handle for the Amherst junior, though, rattling off another three unanswered games to take the set 6-2.
- The two players alternated holds of serve to begin the second set until it was 2-2. Melnikov then earned a break without conceding a point to take the 3-2 edge. The Swarthmore senior then rallied from down 0-40 to hold his serve and go up 4-2. Melnikov rode the momentum into another break and then won the match on serve, 6-2, to move on to the national championship match.
UP NEXT
Melnikov and Mareedu battle for the crown on Tuesday with first serve set for 10 a.m.
