ATHENS, Ga. — The first round of the NCAA singles championship tournament featured two LSU tennis players on Thursday, as the Tigers’ 12th-ranked Ajay Ramaswami advanced to the second round of competition and No. 48 Dan Kiernan fell to UCLA’s 13th-ranked Jean-Julian Rojer at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.
Ramaswami, LSU’s senior from Mumbai, India, breezed past Minnesota’s Harsh Mankad in straight sets by earning a 6-3, 6-3 victory.
With the win, Ramaswami improved to an overall record of 28-14 on the season and advanced to face Texas A&M’s 19th-ranked Shuon Madden in the second round of play on Friday.
The pair are familiar foes as Ramaswami and Madden have tangled twice this season. In the opening match between the No. 1 singles players, Madden defeated Ramaswami, 6-2, 6-4, in a regular season contest, while last week the duo battled in the opening round of the team championships. The Tigers’ Ramaswami led the second contest, 3-6, 6-3, 1-0, before the match was suspended.
LSU’s Kiernan, a junior from Newcastle, England, closed out his impressive 2001 season on Friday with a 6-1, 6-4, loss to UCLA’s Rojer in the first round of competition. Despite the loss, Kiernan finished the year with an overall mark of 25-9 and with a dual-match record of 19-3.
Rojer advanced to the second round of play and is scheduled to face Duke’s Marko Cerenko on Friday.
The Tigers’ 33rd-ranked doubles team comprised of freshman Sebastian Rutka and Kiernan begins play in the NCAA doubles championships on Friday here at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. LSU’s pair opens the competition against Kansas’ 31st-ranked combination of Rodrigo Echagaray and Eleazar Magellan. The match times have yet to be determined.