Smith advances to Round of 16 in NCAA tennis

Tennessee sophomore John-Patrick Smith advanced to the Round of 16 in the NCAA singles tournament in College Station, Texas, with a 6-3, 7-6 victory over North Carolina's Clay Donato on Thursday.

"I played real well in the first set,'' said the No. 6 seed Smith. "It was a long day and I'm glad I could finish in two (sets). I was fresh yesterday compared to today. We played during the hottest part of the day, so that was pretty hard as well.''

Smith lost a service game and fell behind 5-2 in the second set, forcing him to battle back under the hot Texas sun.

Smith plays today against Virginia's Sanam Singh, a 6-2, 6-0 winner over Texas' Dimitar Kutrovsky.

"Yesterday (Wednesday) I was seeing the ball a big bigger than I was today,'' Smith said.

Smith is also playing doubles with Davey Sandgren. Playing on the same court where Smith won his singles match, the duo scored a 6-4, 6-2 victory against Baylor's David Galic and Jordan Rux.

Smith and Sandgren are seeded second. They next face the Boise State's Kean Feeder and James Meredith.

Meanwhile, Caitlin Whoriskey and Natalie Pluskota of the Lady Vols defeated Carolyn McVeigh and Jessica Nguyen of Stanford, 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of the NCAA women's doubles tournament.

Whoriskey and Pluskota next face second-seeded Kristy Frilling-Kelcy Teff of Notre Dame. The Irish duo won an earlier meeting, 8-5, in Knoxville on March 22.