Release courtesy of Swarthmore Athletic Communications
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Swarthmore College's
Michael Melnikov cruised to a semifinal victory at the NCAA Men's Tennis Singles Championship on Monday and earned the opportunity to play for a national championship for the first time in his historic career.
Melnikov is the third player in Centennial history to reach the singles championship match, joining Washington College's Damian Polla and Johns Hopkins' Vishnu Joshi in that elite club. Polla won the singles title in both 1995 and 1997 while Joshi finished as the runner-up in 2022.
Melnikov downed Amherst College's Andreas Sillaste 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the NCAA final. The second-seeded Melnikov will square off with top-seeded Advik Mareedu of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges, the defending champion, in a highly-anticipated matchup for the national title. It will be the fourth career meeting between the pair with Mareedu owning a 2-1 advantage. The duo have already met twice this season, with Melnikov earning the victory in the last match at the ITA Indoor National Championship in February.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Melnikov nearly picked up an opening break, holding a 40-30 advantage before Sillaste came back to take two straight points and hold serve. However, the Garnet standout responded with three consecutive games to take a 3-1 lead. Sillaste won another deuce point to hold serve and stay in the set, trailing 3-2. Melnikov proved too much to handle for the Amherst junior, though, rattling off another three unanswered games to take the set 6-2.
- The two players alternated holds of serve to begin the second set until it was 2-2. Melnikov then earned a break without conceding a point to take the 3-2 edge. The Swarthmore senior then rallied from down 0-40 to hold his serve and go up 4-2. Melnikov rode the momentum into another break and then won the match on serve, 6-2, to move on to the national championship match.
UP NEXT
Melnikov and Mareedu battle for the crown on Tuesday with first serve set for 10 a.m.
