Boldarev finishes 3rd in singles and 4th in doubles with Piludu

Boldarev finishes 3rd in singles and 4th in doubles with Piludu

The ITA National doubles and singles torunament finished up over the weekend.  After their first round win Andrey Boldarev and Daniele Piludu faced off in the semi-finals against the pair from Valdosta State. 

The Clipper pair started their match on serve.  Through twelve games neither pair would gain a break to take a lead and so the set was forced to a tie-breaker.  The Clippers grabbed a couple of early points and took the tie-breaker for a set one win of 7-6.  The second set saw the Clippers struggle a little as they were broken twice to fall in the set 6-2.  With the match tied at 1-1 a third set tie-breaker ensued.  Back and forth the third set went until 8-8.  Boldarev and Piludu dropped a point and fell 10-8. 

Boldarev and Piludu were not done in the tournament yet, they would next face the fourth seeded pair from Abilene Christian for a shot at 3rd place.  In a tight first set the Clipper pair were on serve through 5-5 but were then broken to fall in the set 7-5.  After the break in the first set, Boldarev and Piludu claimed two games in the second set before dropping the match and placing 4th in the tournament. 

On the singles side, Boldarev took on #1 seeded Armstrong Atlantic in the semi-finals.  Boldarev found a late break in set one to take a 1-0 lead in the match with a 6-4 set win.  With the second set tied at five games a piece Boldarev ran into an unfortunate error and was broken to force a third set.  After taking two games in the third set Boldarev was broken twice and fell two sets to one in the match. 

Boldarev was finished their as he faced off against #4 seeded BYU-Hawaii opponent for 3rd place.  As the first set was even at 4-4 Boldarev pushed his way to find a break and take the set.  He then continued to work hard in the second set as he found another late break to seal the match with a set win of 7-5 to take 3rd place overall.

Boldarev and Piludu along with the rest of the Clippers will open up their 2011 season as they face off with Embry Riddle in March.