Case Western Reserve University junior James Hopper and graduate student Jonathan Powell battled their way into the semifinals of the doubles draw at the NCAA Division III Individual Men's Tennis Championships, earning a three-set victory in the quarterfinals on Saturday at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida.
Hopper and Powell, seeded second in the draw, picked up a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (2) win against Chase Cohen and Matt Kandel of Williams in the quarterfinals on Saturday. CWRU dominated early in the match, jumping out to a 5-1 lead in the first set, before closing out the 6-4 victory in the opening frame. In the second set, neither team would break serve through the first seven games, resulting in a 4-3 lead for the Williams' duo. However, Cohen and Kandel were able to notch a break to gain a 5-3 lead, and close out the set 6-3 on their next serve, forcing a deciding third set.
In the third, both teams continued to hold their serve through the first 10 games. However, with the score tied at 5-5, Williams was once again able to notch the first break of the set, taking a 6-5 lead and giving the pairing a chance to serve for the win. Hopper and Powell returned the favor by breaking Kandel's serve to tie the match at 6-6, sending the contest into a tiebreaker. CWRU took immediate control of the tiebreaker, scoring the first three points, en route to the 7-2 win.
Hopper and Powell improved to 30-6 together this season following the win. It was Hopper's program-record extending 35th doubles win of the 2021-22 season, while Powell now has 33 doubles victories during the year, tied for the second-most in team history behind Hopper.
Hopper and Powell, now the top-seeded pairing left alive in the draw, will now turn their attention toward the NCAA Semifinals, where they will face unseeded Moses Hutchinson and Andrew Watson of the University of Mary Washington, who advanced after a win by retirement against the fourth-seeded pairing of Jack Bulger and Tim Cianciola of Denison. Hopper faced Hutchinson and Watson in the round of 16 of the 2021 NCAA Doubles Championship with then-partner Matthew Chen, winning in three sets, 6-2, 5-7, 6-3.
On the other side of the draw, a pair of unseeded teams will face off, as Emory's Andrew Esses and Nolan Shah will take on Wash U's Daniel Li and Abhi Ramireddy in the second semifinal match.
The doubles semifinals are scheduled to begin at noon on Sunday, with the championship match to follow shortly after the semifinals are complete. Hopper and Powell will attempt to become just the second CWRU doubles team to win an NCAA Championship, along with CJ Krimbill and Eric Klawitter in 2014.
In singles action on Saturday, Hopper dropped his quarterfinal match to end his run in the draw. Hopper, the third seeded singles player, suffered a 6-3, 6-3 loss to unseeded Mason Tran of Pacific in the quarterfinals, bringing his singles campaign to a close with a 19-9 record.
Links to full coverage of Sunday's matches will be available on the official tournament website at https://www.ustanationalcampus.com/en/home/collegiate/ncaa-championships.html. Full results and a recap will be posted to athletics.case.edu following the completion of competition on Sunday.
