Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
ITA Regionals
Craton Leads Men's Tennis at ITA Regionals
October 24, 2004 | Men's Tennis
Oct. 24, 2004
BLACKSBURG, Va. - Junior Darius Craton reached the final 16 in the singles bracket and joined partner Josh Burman to reach the final 16 of the doubles bracket this weekend at the ITA Regionals at Virginia Tech's Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center.
Craton and Burman were still alive in the doubles bracket as of Sunday afternoon. The pair, seeded fifth in the 64-team bracket, received a bye in the first round and then defeated a team from host Virginia Tech in the second round by an 8-4 score to advance to the Round of 16.
Craton was seeded No. 14 in the singles bracket and, after receiving a first-round bye, won two matches before falling in the final 16. He defeated Justin Lavner of Penn in the second round, 6-2 and 6-1, and then beat Cornell's Josh Kaff in three sets in the third round, 6-4, 1-6 and 6-4. Craton's run came to an end in the round of 16 when he fell to top seed Jonathan Chu of Harvard, the No. 25-ranked player in the country, in a close 6-4, 7-6 match. Burman also won two matches in the singles bracket, advancing to the Round of 32. He defeated Georgetown's Scott Faust 6-2 and 6-4 in the first round, then beat Saint Joseph's Francisco Velazquez in straight sets in the second round. Jan Krejci of Stony Brook, seeded eighth, ended Burman's run with a tough three-set win the third round.
Princeton had four other players in the singles bracket. Andrew Lieu, Ashwat Sarohia each won first-round matches before falling in the second round, while Sratha Saengsuwarn lost to Jared Drucker of Columbia in the second round after receiving a first-round bye. Hans Plukas won a second-round match over Harvard's Brandon Chiu before falling to Columbia's Akshay Rao in the third round.
Two other Tiger doubles teams participated in the ITA regionals. Saengsuwarn and Sarohia defeated the 10th-seeded team from Manhattan in the first round before falling to a team from Dartmouth in the round of 32, while Lieu and Plukas also advanced to the second round, where they fell to a team from Virginia Tech.