Shabaz, Courtney team up for title

ATHENS, Ga. — The Virginia doubles team of Michael Shabaz and Drew Courtney won the national doubles championship Monday afternoon at the Dan Magill Tennis Center. The unseeded Cavalier duo, ranked No. 14 nationally entering the tournament, toppled second-seeded John-Patrick Smith and Davey Sandgren of Tennessee, 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-3.

“I don’t know if it has sunk in yet that I am a NCAA champion,” Courtney said. “I played well and really just tried to enjoy myself on the court and to enjoy the moment. I am excited for not only the win, but for the future.”

It is the second consecutive doubles title for Shabaz, who won the 2009 championship with Dominic Inglot. Shabaz and Inglot also defeated Smith and Sandgren in the final.

“The second one feels just as good,” Shabaz said. “I am really excited for Drew to be able to win this one. It wasn’t easy, but we were able to pull through in the end.”

The individual title is the fourth in Virginia history and in as many years. In addition to last year’s doubles title, Somdev Devvarman won the singles championship in 2007 and 2008.

Virginia is the first school to win individual titles in four consecutive years since USC did so in 1961-64.

Shabaz and Courtney jumped out to a quick start, breaking Sandgren’s serve in the opening game. They held that advantage until the Volunteers broke Shabaz at 5-4 when he was serving for the opening set. The set went to a tiebreaker, which the Tennessee duo won 7-4 to take the first set.

“We played well in the first set until I had a poor service game,” Shabaz said. “Even though we lost the first set, we felt like we had played the better set. We knew if we kept returning well and serving well, we were in a good position. Those things paid off for us in the end.”

Courtney and Shabaz regrouped in the second set and broke Sandgren twice to win 6-2.

“I thought we loosened up a little bit in the second set,” Courtney said. “Once we won the second set, I thought we had the edge in the third. We had found our targets and felt like if we could execute and hit them, we were going to be successful.”

In the third set, the Cavalier team broke Sandgren for the third consecutive time for a 3-1 lead. Each side held serve in the next four games to set up Courtney serving for the match at 5-3. He hit two service winners and two aces, including one on match point, to seal the victory.

Shabaz becomes the first player since Matt Lucena of California to win consecutive doubles titles. Lucena won the 1990 and 1991 titles, also accomplishing the feat by playing with different partners.

“It is pretty awesome to win it again,” Shabaz said. “It was a little weird playing Smith and Sandgren again in the final, this time playing with a different partner. But that says a lot about the talent and desire of this program. This win is not just for us, but for the whole Virginia tennis program. We had a tough end to the team tournament, but hopefully this can help us bounce back from that loss and give us some momentum heading into next year.”