By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
They say a cat has nine lives.
How many lives does a dog have? Or a Georgia Bulldog tennis player playing in the NCAA Championships?
In the case of Georgia Bulldog Ethan Quinn, the answer is five….as in match points saved en route to winning the 2023 NCAA singles championship at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Florida.
Quinn pulled off one of the most incredible comebacks in the history of this event that started in 1883 when he fought his way back from being quadruple match down to dig out a 6-7(2), 7-6(5), 6-2 victory over University of Michigan’s Ondrej Styler in the NCAA singles final.
Quinn was one point from losing the final four times when Styler served at 5-4, 40-0, meaning Styler had four straight match points including the sudden-death deuce point that is used in college tennis. Quinn fought through each opportunity, capped with a forehand mishit from Styler. Quinn, from Fresno, Calif., was able to fight to win the second-set tiebreaker and play aggressive tennis in the third set to prevail and win Georgia’s fifth NCAA singles championship.
“I was as close as I could possibly have been to winning this match,” said Styler, a senior from the Czech Republic.
The No. 2-seeded Quinn was an escape artist for his entire six-day run to the championship, saving a match point in his first round 6-7(7), 6-2, 7-5 win over Luc Fomba of TCU (at 4-5, deuce in the third set), while also winning close matches in the round of 16 against Nishesh Basvareddy of Stanford (6-3, 4-6, 7-5) and the semifinals against Chris Rodesch of Virginia (2-6, 6-2, 6-4.)
“I guess I’d already been in that situation before, so definitely … It was something I was used to, I guess,” said Quinn trying to explain how he was able to escape defeat against Styler. ” I wouldn’t say used to, but I had already seen it before. Knowing that I’ve been in that position before, I could just continue playing the way I’ve been playing. I’d been in a lot of return games early in the match, throughout the entire match.”
Quinn actually jumped to an early double-break lead at 5-2 but was unable to serve out the first set on two occasions, then lost the first set tiebreaker. Styler performed one of the great acts of sportsmanship when he gave Quinn the point for a double-break lead when facing break point down 2-4 on a call that was called out, but was clearly in.
Quinn, a 19-year-old redshirt freshman, is the fifth college freshman to win the NCAA men’s singles title, joining Jimmy Connors of UCLA (1971), John McEnroe of Stanford (1978), Cecil Mamiit of Southern Cal (1996) and Devin Britton of Ole Miss (2009).
His journey from arriving to Athens so his impressive showing at the U.S. qualifying tournament in 2022 can be read here: https://www.worldtennismagazine.com/archives/21195?fbclid=IwAR33rK2F5g_O_xhe8bc43JCfOsjjhJfxXwdwpLRHgHEXV7MhjVDv-z3EU5k
Quinn joins two Georgia Bulldog greats, Mikael Pernfors and Matias Boeker, as NCAA men’s singles champions, Pernfors winning back-to-back titles in 1984 and 1985 and Boeker winning in 2001 and 2002.
