NCAA Tennis Championships : Kaplan, 3 Others Are Upset

Four of the top five-seeded players, including UC Irvine’s Mark Kaplan, were eliminated in Wednesday’s first round of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. men’s singles championships.

Kaplan, seeded No. 4, lost to Paul Mancini of West Virginia, 6-4, 6-4. Kaplan lost in the semifinals as a sophomore and the quarterfinals as a junior.

The most surprising upset came when No. 1 MaliVai Washington of Michigan lost, 6-4, 6-3, to Georgia’s Francisco Montana.

Playing before a home-court crowd of 2,300, Montana broke Washington’s service three times in the final set. He won a sudden-death point to clinch the victory. In other upsets, unseeded Pat Crow of Cal State Long Beach knocked off third-seeded Johan Kjellsten of Louisiana State, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, and unseeded Byron Black of USC beat fifth-seeded Steve Bryan of Texas, 2-6, 7-5, 6-2.

UCLA’s two seeded players both won. Brian Garrow, who reached the singles final last year, defeated John Stimpson of Alabama, 6-3, 6-1, and Buff Farrow eliminated Rich Benson of Kentucky, 6-2, 6-2. Black’s upset helped USC go 3-0 for the day. Eric Amend downed Jeff Chiang of Columbia, 6-7 (7-5), 6-4, 6-2, and Greg Failla defeated Hakan Svensen of Southwest Missouri State, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1, despite facing match point in the second set.

Trevor Kronemann was Irvine’s only winner, downing Steve Herdoizi of Northwestern, 6-0, 6-4. Teammate Mike Briggs lost to Steve Jung of Nebraska, 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 6-2.

In other matches involving area players, Kip Brady of UC Santa Barbara defeated Dave Harkness of Brigham Young, 7-6 (9-7), 6-4; Grant Saacks of Pepperdine lost to Mark Mance of Duke, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, and Jose Luis Noriega of the University of San Diego defeated Steve Longley of South Carolina, 7-5, 6-2.