University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
SEC Coaches' Indoor Championships
Sandgren and Smith Win SEC Indoor Doubles Championship
January 18, 2009 | Men's Tennis
Jan. 18, 2009
Tennessee teammates Davey Sandgren and John-Patrick Smith won twice Sunday to win the SEC Coaches' Indoor Doubles Championship played at the University of Kentucky. The title is UT's first at the SEC Indoors since 2002.
"It's a great result for the guys," head coach Sam Winterbotham said. "Obviously, the SEC is the strongest conference in the country and to come into the indoors and win the tournament and be able to say you're the best doubles team in the best conference in the country is something they should be really proud of."
In the finals, Sandgren and Smith were able to knock off LSU's Neal Skupski and Michael Venus, 8-6 to capture the title. The doubles title is UT's first since Mark Dietrich and Peter Handoyo won the doubles championship in 2002.
"Honestly, we're just doing our job and doing what we came here to do," Smith said.
The duo started their job Sunday morning with an 8-5 win over Antoine Benneteau and Joey Burkhardt of Florida in the semifinals. Benneteau and Burkhardt are unranked but they had knocked off the nation's top-ranked doubles duo in the quarterfinals.
"We just played really well today when we needed to," Sandgren said. "I'm glad we got our first title of the season and hopefully it's the first of many titles for both us and the team."
Before doubles, both Sandgren and Smith had quarterfinal singles matches to play. Smith continued his run in the singles draw with a three-set win over 28th-ranked Jonas Berg of Ole Miss.
"J.P. is just getting stronger as the tournament goes on," Winterbotham said. "He beat a very good opponent today and I'm very impressed with how he is handling himself on the courts. He's maturing and handling adversity very well and coming back strong. That's something he's been working on and that bodes very well for his future and the rest of the season."
Sandgren dropped his match to David Britton of Ole Miss, 6-4, 6-4.
"Davey had a very close match with Britton," Winterbotham said. "To his opponent's credit, he was able to get a break late in both sets, but I think Davey did a great job today and throughout this tournament."
Smith will try to avenge his teammate's loss when he meets Britton in the semifinals Monday morning.
The only other Vols in action Sunday were Christian Hansen and Jeremy Tweedt. The Vol duo dropped their consolation doubles match 8-6 to Ricky Doverspike and Michael Thompson of Alabama.
Smith begins play Monday morning at 9 a.m. in the semifinals. The championship match is scheduled to begin Monday afternoon at 1 p.m.
| SEC Indoor Championships - Jan. 18, 2009 | |||
| Doubles - Finals | |||
| Sandgren/Smith (UT) | def. | Skupski/Venus (LSU) | 8-6 |
| Doubles - Semifinals | |||
| Sandgren/Smith (UT) | def. | Benneteau/Burkhardt (UF) | 8-5 |
| Singles - Quarterfinals | |||
| No. 50 John-Patrick Smith (UT) | def. | No. 28 Jonas Berg (UM) | 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 |
| Devin Britton (UM) | def. | Davey Sandgren (UT) | 6-4, 6-4 |
| Doubles - Consolation | |||
| Doverspike/Thompson (UA) | def. | Hansen/Tweedt (UT) | 8-6 |
Players Mentioned
