Newport drew the #2 seed, Peter Handoyo, in the first round of the singles bracket. Handoyo didn't lose a singles match during the team portion of tourney...beating Simon of t.u., Witten of Kentucky, and Park of USC...the last two pretty easily in straight sets.

Hopefully Newport can pick up his game and play similarly to his match again Boeker. He'll need to serve well and play agressively to win. I wish him the best of luck.

I saw Pete play in 2 matches and he is one tough player.Texas' Simon, however, did take a set off of him and was doing well in the second set until he let a couple of line calls get into his head. If Newp were a baseliner, I'd give him no chance but his serve and volley game might make it interesting. Still it's a bad first round draw.

[This message has been edited by SA68AG (edited 5/21/2002).]

I wouldn't exactly consider Newport to have a serve and volley game. I mean he comes to the net more than a strict baseliner, but for the most part, he sits at the baseline and grinds it out.

Again, I think if he can come out serving big and playing agressively, then he's got a shot to win. I know I'll be there cheering him on.

Newp beat this guy last year in a tournament in Houston, I believe. That does not mean it will happen again tomorrow, but at least he should not be in awe of the number two seed.

handoyo is beatable as long as newp stays fired up. if he gets broken early and can't bounce back, it could get ugly. however, if he's resilient and keeps fighting like he did against simon and boeker...i'll take newp in 3. if he serves lights out(let's say 75-85% fsp) i like newp in two tiebreaks. i would rather him play a quick match and not have to stay out there all day with a guy as quick and fit as handoyo.

gig 'em and give 'em hell newp!

Wow! Newport won 6-1, 6-2. When he is "on," he is one of the most dangerous players I have seen. I thought he controlled much of the match against Boeker of Georgia, and he definitely had his chances against Garland (Pepperdine) earlier in the year.

If Newport continues to play with confidence, he should do well in this tournament and next year.

Did Newport play out of his mind? Was there an injury?

1 & 2 against the #2 seed is strong. Does anyone know anything?

Newport played his game and was definitely on today. Services were dead on and pinpointed the returns.
Deej

How was the crowd for the first day of singles? Newport's match?

Better than expected. Stadium club was almost full because Ryan was playing on court 1, but there were quite a few folks upstairs as well...looked like quite a few out-of-towners had hung around to watch some of the individual competition. I was suprised; I thought the crowd would be about on par with a regular season Aggie match, but it seemed quite a bit larger than that. Of course, it thinned out considerably when Ryan's match ended.