Pepperdine Alum Wins U.S. Open Doubles Title
9/7/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
NEW YORK -- Former Pepperdine men's tennis player Simon Aspelin, a four-time All-American from 1994-97, captured the U.S. Open men's doubles championship on Friday with teammate Julian Knowle.
Aspelin, who hails from Sweden, and Knowle, who is from Austria, won their first Grand Slam title by beating Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-4.
This was only the third major doubles event for the Aspelin-Knowle pairing. This is their first year together. They were the #10 seed in the tournament. In the quarterfinals, they knocked off the #1-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan duo.
"The last two days, Julian and I have been playing great," Aspelin said. "I felt a little nervous coming out here."
They won $400,000 for taking the title.
Aspelin ranks sixth all-time in singles wins at Pepperdine with 77 and posted a career winning percentage of .794 in singles. He and Troy Budgen have the school's top career winning percentage in doubles at .909 with a 30-3 record.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report)
