Csanadi & Van Der Merwe Lose in National Indoor Finals :: Duo Defeats Defending Champs to Reach Championship Match

Nov. 9, 2002

FARMERS BRANCH, TX - Old Dominion's Zoltan Csanadi (Timisoara, Romania) and Izak van der Merwe (Kempton Park, South Africa) lost to the team of Richard Barker & William Barker of Rice, 8-2 in the finals of the Omni Hotels National Intercollegiate Indoor Tennis Championships. The Monarch duo reached the finals after knocking off the tournament's defending champions and No. 3 seeds Ryan Redondo and Oliver Maiberger of San Diego State, 9-7.

Csanadi and van der Merwe opened the tournament knocking off the top seed team of Michael Calkin/Amer Delic of Illinois, 8-4. In the Quarterfinals they defeated Geoff Hiscox/ Stephen Mitchell of Alabama, 9-8 before defeating Mailberger/Redondo. Against Redondo and Maiberger they were able to break Maiberger's serve at 8-7 to close out the match.

Csanadi and van der Merwe are now 15-2 this season and have already won three tournament titles. They are the first from ODU to ever reach a national men's doubles final. ODU qualified for this week's tournament by virtue of winning the Omni Hotels Mideast title last month in Chapel Hill, N.C.

The Omni Hotels National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, the nation's premier collegiate indoor tennis tournaments for Division I men and women, are presented by The Dallas Morning News and hosted by SMU at the Brookhaven Country Club in Farmers Branch.

The Omni Hotels National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships feature a 32-player singles field and 16-team doubles field for men and women, including: qualifiers from Omni Hotels Regional Championships held across the country during October, the Omni Hotels National Small College champions, the winners of the Icy Hot/ITA Men's and Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships and at-large and wild card selections made by the ITA National Tournament Committee.