Rosa Roars Back To Reach Round of 16
5/21/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
May 21, 2009
Bruno Rosa won the last 12 games of the match while fighting off five match points to complete a stunning comeback and defeat Florida State's Clint Bowles 5-7, 7-5, 6-0 in the second round of the NCAA Men's Tennis Singles Championships at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center on the campus of Texas A&M University.
Rosa and Bowles held serve through first 11 games of the first set before Bowles broke through to take the opening set. He broke Rosa twice in the second set and appeared ready to close out the match in the seventh game. However, down 5-1 in the set and faced with two match points, Rosa surged back to break Bowles for the first time. After holding serve to move the match to 5-3, Rosa was down 40-0 and faced with three additional match points before he rallied to gain a second service break and close the match to 5-4.
After his stunning comeback in the second set, Rosa blitzed through the third set without losing a game to become the first Rice men's tennis player to reach the round of 16 since William Barker in 2003.
He will meeting Ole Miss freshman Devin Britton at 1:30 on Friday looking for a berth in the quarterfinals.
With a finish in the top 16 guaranteed, Rose will become the first Rice singles player to earn back-to-back All American honors since Mike Estep earned the honors in three consecutive years from 1969-71.
Players Mentioned
