Adams/Vinsant Compete at USTA Nationals
NEW YORK-The Texas A&M doubles team of true freshmen Harrison Adams and Shane Vinsant drew tough assignments at the USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships being conducted at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, New York.
The Aggies faced the No. 2-seed Henrique Cunha and Raphael Hemmeler of Duke in the opening round and dropped an 8-2 decision on Thursday. Cunha is a senior and Hemmeler is a sophomore and the Duke duo was ranked No. 16 in the country in the pre-season (Sept.) doubles rankings and the Duke tandem has advanced to the Saturday semifinals.
With the loss, Adams and Vinsant moved into the consolation bracket on Friday and drew the top seeded tandem of Vikram Hundai and Juan Spir from Georgia Tech. The Aggie youngsters battled and dropped a hard-fought 9-8 decision.
"Today the guys got down a break on serve and battled back," Aggie head coach Steve Denton said. "A couple of mental errors hurt down the stretch."
"Shane (Vinsant) and Harrison (Adams) had a great experience getting to compete against the top teams in college tennis and when you consider they just stepped on campus this fall I think it is a great achievement for these players," Denton added. "I am very confident in the ability of this doubles team. I look for them to become one of the premier doubles team in the country as they gain experience at this level."
The Aggie duo advanced to New York by virtue of winning the Texas Regional in Fort Worth and had to knock off fellow teammates Jackson Withrow and Alberto Bautista. In fact, the Aggies had three of the four doubles semifinalsits.
