May 28, 2011
STANFORD, CA -- The senior All-American doubles team of Austin Krajicek and Jeff Dadamo advanced to the national semifinals at the NCAA Doubles Championship being conducted at the Taube Family Tennis Center at Stanford. The Aggies defeated the top doubles team from Baylor, 6-2, 7-6 (4) in the quarterfinals to advance to the NCAA semifinals where they will face the winning doubles team from the Georgia Tech versus Duke match which began later on Saturday.
Krajicek (CRY-check) and Dadamo (duh-DOM-oh) have already earned All-America honors for the second consecutive year by being seeded third in the NCAA Championships. The Aggie dynamic duo posted a 27-3 dual match record this spring and with the victory against Roberto Maytin and John Peers from Baylor, avenged one of their three losses. The Baylor duo was ranked No. 5 in the latest ITA doubles rankings and the Aggies' tandem is ranked No. 4.
"I thought we played well today," Dadamo said. "We had a game plan going into the match and we executed pretty well. We were hot early with our serves and our returns. We were able to disrupt them a bit in the first set."
Dadamo, who was the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year in 2010 and earned the 2011 Big 12 Most Outstanding Player in leading the Aggies to the 2011 Big 12 Championships title, teamed with Krajicek to win the USTA/ITA National Doubles Indoor title last fall.
"Austin and I feel pretty comfortable together on the court," Dadamo said. "We trust each other and we've been in some close situations before and we are playing pretty well."
Krajicek, the two-time Big 12 Player of the Year and the all-time Aggie leader in doubles victories now with 110 wins, advanced to the quarterfinals as a sophomore and reached the NCAA semifinals as a freshman with former teammate Conor Pollock.
"We were able to get a bit of revenge against Baylor," Krajicek said. "We started very well and we were able to get an early break and we played with a lot of confidence. In the second set they broke us early, but we were able to break back to tie it up 3-3 and then played solid the rest of the way."
The Aggies will face the doubles team of either Kevin King and Juan Spir from Georgia Tech, or Duke's Reid Carleton and Henrique Cunna. The Georgia Tech duo eliminated the national top seeded doubles team from Tennessee in the Round of 16 to advance to the quarterfinals against Duke, while the Blue Devils' duo beat Texas in the Round of 16 to advance. Georgia Tech's doubles team is ranked No. 14 in the latest ITA rankings while Duke is ranked No. 7.
"It will be a good match whoever we play tomorrow," Dadamo said. "Austin and I just have to play our game."
"We've played together for two years and we can play pretty well when we are clicking and today was one of those days," Krajicek said.