February 7, 1999
Dallas - Washington men's tennis player Robert Kendrick won his semifinal round match to advance to the final round of the Rolex National Intercollegiate Indoor Championship at the Brookhaven Country Club. Kendrick defeated Tennessee's 10th-ranked freshman Peter Handoyo 6-3, 6-4. Prior to today's match, Handoyo had only lost two games in a set just once out of six total sets during the tournament.
The eighth-ranked Husky sophomore boosts his record to 15-2 and has won 10 straight matches. He faces the nation's top player, Harvard's James Blake, in tomorrow's 11 a.m. final. Blake defeated No. 16 Francisco Rodriguez of Alabama 6-3, 6-4 in the other semifinal match.
"Robert is doing very well and finding a way to win each round," says head coach Matt Anger. "He is playing some very good players. Hopefully he can do it one more time."
Kendrick will attempt to become the first unseeded player to win the Rolex Indoor Championship since North Carolina's Rolex Thornqvist did in 1993. The Indoor Championship is the third leg of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Collegiate Grand Slam.
It will be Kendrick's first ITA Collegiate Grand Slam final appearance. He reached the semifinals of the ITA All-American Championship, the second leg of the ITA Grand Slam, in Austin, Texas last October.
Rolex National Incollegiate Indoor Championship
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