May 20, 2009

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Clay Donato fought back from a 1-6 first set loss to defeat Texas A&M's Austin Krajicek in the first round of the NCAA Championships.

Donato, who is playing in both the singles and doubles portions of the individual NCAA Tournament, won a third-set tiebreaker to advance to the round of 32.

Krajicek, who would have been teammates with Donato if the junior from Canada hadn't transferred to UNC following his freshman season, held serve and failed to break Donato before winning five straight games and the first set. With that momentum, the sophomore from Florida jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the second set. Donato charged back to win three games in a row, though, and eventually closed out a 6-4 second set victory.

The two played a back-and-forth second set, trading serve all the way to a 6-6 tie. Donato then blocked out the crowd in what amounted to a home match for Krajicek to pull out the tiebreaker win and the match victory.

Donato will face a much stiffer test Thursday in John-Patrick Smith, the tournament's overall No. 6 seed from Tennessee. Smith made quick work of Florida State's Jean-Yves Aubone on Wednesday, beating the ACC Player of the Year in straight sets.

Donato will also play doubles with Taylor Fogleman tomorrow, as the pair is set to take on Radford's Martin Sayer and Zachary Watson in the first round of the individual doubles tournament.

Clay Donato (UNC) d. Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M) 1-6, 6-4, 7-6