Kogan and Romero Snag Tough Draws at NCAA Championships
May 21, 2002 | Men's Tennis
May 21, 2002
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The draws were announced for the 2002 NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships on Tuesday and Tulane's entries in the event have their work cut out for them. The Singles Championship opens on Wednesday, while the Doubles Tournament begins Thursday at the Texas A&M Tennis Center.
In singles action, Green Wave sophomore Michael Kogan (Kfar-Saba, Israel) will battle the third seed in the tournament, Minnesota's Harsh Mankad, at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
A junior from Indonesia, Mankad is also ranked No. 3 in the nation with a 24-4 record this year. Kogan, meanwhile, is the No. 22 ranked singles player in the country. He is 32-9 this year in singles action. The pair met in a dual match in March of 2001, but did not finish. Kogan had won the first set, 6-3, but dropped the second set, 6-1, and trailed 4-1 in the deciding set before Tulane clinched the victory in the match.
Victor Romero (Atizapan, Mexico) was the top alternate for the tournament and earned a slot due to withdrawal by other players. The Green Wave junior is ranked No. 58 in the nation and will meet 17th-ranked Oliver Maiberger from San Diego State in the first round at noon on Wednesday.
Romero is 20-11 this year in singles play, while Maiberger, a native of Lorsch, Germany, is 26-9.
With a first-round win, Kogan, the two-time Player of the Year in Conference USA, would meet the winner of the match between Arkansas' Oggie Kolev (No. 30) and Arizona State's Matt Klinger (No. 33). Kogan defeated Kolev in a dual match earlier this season. Romero, meanwhile, hopes to advance to face the winner of the contest between Notre Dame's Javier Taborga (No. 16) and UCLA's Marcin Matkowski (No. 21). Romero battled Taborga during the 2001 season, leading the match, 6-7, 6-3, 5-2, before Notre Dame clinched a victory over the Wave at the Blue-Gray Classic.
In doubles play, the Green Wave duo of Kogan and Romero has the unfortunate task of playing the top-ranked tandem in the country. Ranked No. 19 in the country, Tulane's pair face Matkowski and Jean-Julien Rojer from UCLA in the opening round on Thursday. Kogan and Romero own an impressive 24-3 record entering the tourney, while the UCLA team is 36-9 this year. UCLA's team has just one win in its last five matches, with a pair of losses and two unfinished matches. Kogan and Romero have won eight straight matches.
With a first round win, Tulane's two will battle the winner of a match between Utah's David Mercier and Nicholas Yip (No. 23) and Auburn's Andrew Colombo and Mark Kovacs (No. 27).
In last year's Championships, Kogan earned All-America honors after advancing to the quarterfinals of the singles tournament. He and partner Mikko Viljanen also bowed out in the quarterfinals of doubles, earning All-America recognition in that event as well.
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