Dadamo, Krajicek Crowned Wilson/ITA Texas Regional Doubles Champions
Oct 28, 2009 | Men's Tennis
Oct. 28, 2009
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - For the second consecutive year, the Texas A&M men's tennis team will be represented at the prestigious ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships as junior All-American Austin Krajicek (Brandon, Fla.) and junior newcomer Jeff Dadamo (Tampa, Fla.) were crowned the Wilson/ITA Texas Regional doubles champions on Wednesday at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
It took nearly two and a half hours for the best-of-three doubles championship match to be decided. In the end, Krajicek and Dadamo, both left-handers from Florida playing in their first fall tournament together as doubles partners, surged past the No. 28-ranked doubles tandem of Raony Carvalho and Rafeal Garcia of Texas Tech, 3-6, 7-6 (8), 7-6 (5). The Red Raiders were able to get three service breaks in the first set, while the Aggies capitalized on power serves by Krajicek and Dadamo in the second-and third-set tiebreakers.
"I am really proud of Austin and Jeff today," Texas A&M head coach Steve Denton said. "Tech came out really strong in the first set and they had to make some adjustments. We were able to tighten it up in the second and third sets. I thought we served really well in the third. It really came down to who would get a lucky break in the tiebreakers and it went our way this time."
The singles and doubles champions from the Wilson/ITA Texas Regional Championships advance to the 2009 ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships to be held on Nov. 5-8 at host Yale University in New Haven, Conn. Krajicek and Dadamo are only the fourth Aggie duo in school history to win an ITA regional doubles title next to All-Americans Shuon Madden and Dumitru Caradima in 1998 and former players Cody Hubbell and Jarin Skube in 2000. Last fall, Krajicek and former three-time All-American Conor Pollock (San Antonio, Texas) added their names to that short list.
"I feel good about the fact that we are improving our doubles and getting better every day," Denton said. "This will be a good opportunity for Austin and Jeff to play against some of the top doubles teams in the nation. Last year, when we went to Virginia for the ITA National Indoors, we struggled and didn't win many matches. Hopefully, we will have better results in this second go-around."
WILSON/ITA TEXAS REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Oct. 24-28, 2009
George P. Mitchell Tennis Center
at College Station, Texas
SINGLES
Finals
(46) Ed Corrie (Texas) def. (25) Raony Carvalho (Texas Tech), 6-4, 6-1.
DOUBLES
Finals
Jeff Dadamo-Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M) def. (28) Raony Carvalho-Rafeal Garcia (Texas Tech), 3-6, 7-6 (8), 7-6 (5).
