2019 Master'U Blog: Sweet victory for Team USA

As Team USA looks to defend its Master’U BNP Paribas title and win the event for the ninth time in the last 11 years, Greg Patton–one of three Team USA coaches and the former Boise State men’s tennis head coach–will be writing a blog for USTA.com during the team’s stay in Grenoble, France. Stay tuned for daily updates, as competition is slated for Nov. 29-Dec. 1.  

We just returned victorious from the tournament site, and the team is getting ready for the tournament dinner and party! We are getting picked up at hotel at 6 a.m. tomorrow four our flights back to States, so I will keep this short for now.

We defeated Great Britain, 4-1, to take home our ninth title at this wonderful event. Our men's doubles team of Aleks Kovacevic (Illinois) and Keegan Smith (UCLA) was domineering to clinch the championship for our determined team. In the tightest match of the day, our No. 1 women's singles player, Michaela Gordon, took down her Stanford teammate, Emily Arbuthnott, in three sets to give us a 2-1 advantage. We never looked back from there on the way to the trophy.

All three teams that we defeated went 2-1 at tournament, with their only loss coming against us. Great Britain finished second, Ireland third, and France was the consolation winner.

Our U.S. team in the past 11 years is now 31-2 at the  tournament, and we have now won the event in nine out of the 11 years I have coached the team. The USA has played 12 years at Master'U event in total.

Full results:

USA 4, Great Britain 1

Singles:

Women's #2  Singles: Alexa Graham (USA) def. Ella Taylor (GBR), 6-2, 7-5

Men's #2 Singles: Dan Little (GBR) def. Keegan Smith (USA),  7-6, 6-2

Women's #1 Singles: Michaela Gordon (USA) def. Emily Arbuthnott (GBR), 6-3, 5-7, 6-1

Men's #1 Singles: Aleks Kovacevic (USA) def. Ben Jones (GBR),  6-3, 6-2

Doubles:

Men's Doubles: Aleks Kovacevic/Keegan Smith (USA) def. Jones/Little (GBR), 6-1, 6-2

To view match point, the post-match celebrations and an on-court interview with Coach Patton, visit the USTA on Twitter.

For complete results, visit the Master'U website.

Previous blog posts:

U.S. into final after defeating Ireland

Team USA makes winning start, tops hosts France