Cash and Kadhe Capture ITA Central Regional Doubles Title

Thursday, October 20

Stillwater, Okla.

All Day

Oklahoma State University

ITA Central Regional

Cash and Kadhe Capture ITA Central Regional Doubles Title

October 24, 2016 | Cowboy Tennis

PDF Final Results

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State tennis' top-ranked duo of Julian Cash and Arjun Kadhe won the 2016 ITA Central Regional Doubles Championship as they defeated Oklahoma's Alex Ghilea and Spencer Papa at the Michael and Anne Greenwood Tennis Center on Monday.

With their win, Cash and Kadhe became the first Oklahoma State duo to win the ITA Central Regional doubles title since Aleksey Bessonov and Cowboy legend Oleksandr Nedovyesov achieved the feat in 2009. The win also secures Cash and Kadhe's spot in the 2016 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, which are set to begin on November 3 in Flushing Meadows, New York.

"We're in a very tough region and we knew we'd get a lot of high-quality matches this week," head coach Jay Udwadia said. "It's a bonus if you can win some of those and we had a solid showing this week and it's nice to culminate the week with that doubles victory."

Cash and Kadhe, who were making their second straight appearance in the finals of the ITA Central Regional, found themselves in an early hole against Oklahoma's 22nd-ranked duo of Ghilea and Papa. The two tandems exchanged serve to begin the match, but the Sooners quickly snagged a break point and the upper hand in the first set.

After a rough first set, Kadhe switched to his iconic blue wristband and the nation's No. 1 duo took off from there, winning the first three games of the set en route to splitting with the OU pair and forcing a third-set super tiebreak to determine a winner.

The nation's No. 1 doubles team jumped in front quickly, grabbing a 5-1 lead in the blink of an eye. But the Sooners wouldn't go away as they rallied back and nearly won the match before Cash's service began to overpower the OU tandem. With the tiebreak knotted at 9-9, Cash hammered two more serves and clinched the title for the Cowboys.

"Once we got our energy up, we started playing a lot better," Cash said after the win. "We started playing here straight after the Futures event last week, so we're pretty tired and ready for some days off now. After losing in singles yesterday, I was able to go home and get some extra rest and just be able to focus on doubles today and it definitely showed today."

Oklahoma State Results

Doubles - Semifinals:
No. 1 Julian Cash/Arjun Kadhe (OSU) def. No. 22 Alex Ghilea/Spencer Papa (OU), 2-6, 6-3, 1-0 (9)