TENNIS ROUNDUP : UCLA’s Netter Records Upset in Tournament

UCLA’s Jason Netter, unseeded in the tournament and 30th-ranked in the nation, scored Thursday’s biggest upset at the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championships at Hyatt Grand Champions in Indian Wells.

Netter started poorly, but his dogged style wore down Georgia’s Al Parker, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. Parker is ranked fifth nationally.

Unseeded Donni Leaycraft of Louisiana State was stopped in his bid to repeat as the NCAA singles titlist, losing to Northwestern’s Steve Herdoiza, 7-6 (7-3), 6-1.

Otherwise, what was supposed to happen did, the top three seeded players advancing in singles play and the top two seeded doubles teams reaching the Round of 16.

Top-seeded Todd Martin of Northwestern easily beat Mississippi State’s Mark Jeffrey, 6-2, 6-0, and second-seeded Jonathan Stark of Stanford was a 6-2, 6-4 winner over South Carolina’s Lou Gloria. San Diego’s Jose-Luis Noriega, the third-seeded player, beat Tennessee’s Doug Flach, 6-4, 6-2.

In doubles play, top-seeded Doug Eisenman and Matt Lucena of California beat Nebraska’s Ken Feuer and Matthias Mueller, 6-2, 6-4; and second-seeded Stark and Jared Palmer of Stanford beat Northwestern’s Martin and Chris Gregersen, 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (8-6), 6-4.

Netter beat Parker by overcoming his own sense of where he was and who he was playing--and also with superior conditioning. “In the first set, I was anxious and a little bit too eager,” Netter said. “But in the second and third sets, I calmed down. I kept the ball in play and looked for opportunities more.”

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario came back after dropping the first set to defeat Zina Garrison, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, and pull Spain even with the United States at the Women’s Nations Cup tennis tournament in Marbella, Spain.

Jennifer Capriati had given the United States a 1-0 lead when she outlasted Conchita Martinez, 7-5, 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-2), to win the opening singles match.

Argentina’s Martin Jaite defeated second-ranked Stefan Edberg of Sweden, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, as Argentina beat Sweden, 3-0, in the $1.3-million ATP World Team Cup tournament at Duesseldorf, West Germany.

In the day’s other match, Yugoslavia defeated Austria, 3-0.