2023 NCAA Championships: Quinn rallies, Styler cruises in D1 men's semifinals

ORLANDO - In a mirror image of Friday's earlier women's semifinals, a freshman and a senior booked spots in Saturday's NCAA Division I men's singles championship with two contrasting wins Friday at the USTA National Campus.

University of Georgia redshirt freshman Ethan Quinn and University of Michigan senior Ondrej Styler will do battle in the last singles match of the 2022-23 college tennis season for the right to call himself a national champion. Ondrej, who upset No. 1 seed Eliot Spizzirri of the University of Texas in Thursday's quarterfinals, cruised in a 6-1, 6-2 semifinal victory over Arizona State University sophomore Murphy Cassone, while Quinn rallied for a 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over University of Virginia senior Chris Rodesch. 

For Quinn, a decorated junior player who won the USTA Boys' 18s National Championship in doubles, and the US Open wild card that came with it, last year, getting to add his name to the list of illustrious Bulldogs who've reached the title match is a thrill. 

"[Georgia head coach] Manny [Diaz] told me after the match that six Bulldogs all time have made the NCAA final, so to add my name to that list as a freshman is an honor and really exciting," Quinn said. "When I lost the first set, I kind of wanted to sit there and whine a little bit, but my coaches did a good job of setting me straight and helping me to find a way back into the match." 

The last Bulldog to win the national title was John Isner, who did so as the top seed in 2007. But Quinn is just the second Georgia freshman to even get to the semifinals; Al Parker did so first in 1988, and he was beaten in the championship. He's already playing with house money, too; he saved a match point in his first-round win over TCU's Luc Fomba, a match he said Diaz called his "get out of jail free card" earlier in the tournament.

As the second-seeded Quinn battled to another come-from-behind win against the 6-foot-6 Roedesch, a senior from Luxembourg who was named the team tournament's Most Outstanding Player after the Cavaliers won their second straight team championship, No. 8 seed Ondrej was cruising to his most uncomplicated win of the tournament so far.