USC’s Bastl Makes Most of a Long Day

No one is likely to accuse USC’s George Bastl of not being tough.

On the most difficult day of the NCAA men’s individual championship tennis tournament at Los Angeles Tennis Center, Bastl was unfazed and unbeaten in his Friday matches.

It is a particularly difficult day because a player who wins his third-round morning match must then play again the same day in an early-afternoon quarterfinal match--and then, conceivably, play a late-afternoon second-round doubles match.

Such was the case for Bastl.

Bastl, a junior from Switzerland, beat Matthieu Balley of Mississippi State, 6-0, 6-1, in the morning and then in a 12:30 match beat Frederic Niemeyer of Middle Tennessee State, 6-1, 7-6 (7-3). At 4 p.m., he joined Kyle Spencer in a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Georgia’s Hisham Hemeda and Eddie Jacques.

“Sure, it’s a long day, but it’s nice if you win,” Bastl said.

Third-seeded Eric Taino of UCLA was eliminated by Virginia Commonwealth’s Olivier Tauma, 6-4, 6-0.

In the semifinals, Bastl will face Sebastien DeChaunac of Mississippi, a Frenchman, and Tauma, another French player, will face Luke Smith, an Australian representing Nevada Las Vegas.

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Lilia Osterloh of Stanford beat Florida’s M.C. White, 6-1, 6-1, to win the NCAA women’s championship at Stanford. Osterloh became only the third freshman to win the title.