AUSTIN, Texas In the ITA All-American tennis tournament, the second leg of the collegiate grand slam, LSU tennis standout Michal Chmela advanced to the semifinal on Saturday with two wins while fellow LSU player Tom Hand was forced to default with cramps.
Chmela, LSU’s top player for the past two seasons, beat Ole Miss’s James Shortall 7-6 (4), 6-1 in his morning third round match.
Later in the afternoon, Chmela, the fourth seed, breezed to a straight set win over Johann Jooste of Baylor, 7-6 (1), 6-1 to advance to the semifinal.
“Michal is playing great tennis,” said LSU coach Jeff Brown. “This is the first time since he has been at LSU that he has really shown his ability in a major individual tournament.”
Chmela, a senior, is only the fourth player in LSU history to advance to the semifinal of a collegiate grand slam tournament, and the first since Tamer El Sawy in the 1993 NCAA Tournament.
Fellow senior, Tom Hand entered the day playing in his first ever round of 16 in a grand slam event. Hand proceeded to take a hard fought 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-3 win over 30th-ranked Lief Meineke of Boise State to advance to the quarterfinal. However, the three-set match proved to be too much for Hand to handle physically as he was unable to compete in his afternoon quarterfinal match due to cramps.
“It was really a tough break for Tom,” said Brown. “He has been playing so well this fall and was making a good showing here. For this to happen is really a tough break for him.”
On Sunday Chmela will face Brian Vahaly of Virginia in the semifinal. Vahaly, seeded sixth, is part of the doubles team that eliminated Chmela and partner Dan Kiernan on Friday in the second round of doubles action.