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Staff Writer Jim Young is providing live updates from the Georgia-Virginia men's tennis match in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament. Georgia features former Page standout John Isner, who plays No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles for the Bulldogs. Jim is not on site, but he is glued to his computer, watching a live webfeed of the match. Check the top of this blog entry for the most recent updates.

4:40 Update

Well, Isner eventually fell, 6-4, 6-4, but something tells me he's not too upset right now. Though he failed to convert on three break points in the last game (he must have been about 0-for-8 on break points for the match), moments after Isner shook Devvarman's hand, No. 5 singles player Nate Shnugg closed out his match, 6-2 in the third set, to give Georgia the decisive point. (Helgeson had also won at No. 3 singles, a few moments before the end of Isner's match).

So even though Isner suffered just his second loss in a dual match in well ... forever, Georgia advances with a 4-1 victory.

Up next is Illinois and another chance for a national title for Isner and the Bulldogs, who came up just short last season, losing in the title match to Pepperdine?

This time? I wouldn't bet against Georgia. The Bulldogs have a huge homecourt advantage with a large rowdy crowd behind them, and they've got fantastic depth, with players like Shnugg, a top 100 player, at the bottom of their lineup and Helgeson, the former Big 12 player of the year, in the middle.

And, of course, there's Isner at the top. This, more than anything, is why he came back to Georgia for one more season - another chance at a national title.

He gets another shot at it tomorrow, at 3 p.m.

4:25 Update

At the very least, Isner's going to make Devvarman earn it (and if I've spelled Devvarman's name wrong repeatedly in this blog, I apologize. It's live blogging, without a net). Isner holds again to close to 5-4. Meanwhile, Helgeson's a game away at No. 3 singles.

4:20 Update

Looks like it just might not be Big John's day. He plays well, getting to break point twice, but just can't put together one more point to break Devverman and get back on serve. After a long, long, long, game Devverman finally aces to hold serve and go up 5-3.

In better news, Omerzel won at No. 4 singles to put Georgia up 2-0 and Flores is already up a break in the third set.

4:10 Update
Isner holds again to make it 4-3 Devvarman, but he's running out of time. He needs to string together a series of strong points on Devverman's serve, or he'll be out of this match.

Meanwhile, Flores just dropped the second set at No. 2 singles. With Helgeson and Omerzel looking strong, Georgia looks pretty set to get 3 points. Someone, either Flores, Hunt, Shnugg or Isner, is going to have to win a three-set match to put the Bulldogs in the title match.

4:04 Update
I promised you a score update earlier and failed to deliver. My bad. Isner just held serve to close the gap to 3-2.

At No. 2 singles, Flores is serving to stay in the second set, at 4-5. He won the first set.
At No. 3 singles, Georgia's Travis Helgeson is up a set and up 4-2 in the second set.
At No. 4 singles, Ga's Omi Omerzel is rolling, up a set and 4-2 as well.
At No. 5 singles, Ga's Nate Shnugg is a game away from tying things up at one set apiece, up 5-2 in the second set.
At No. 6 singles, Ga's Jamie Hunt is up 4-3 in the second set, after dropping the first set.

Overall, it's still very tight, but the Bulldogs have a slight edge right now.

3:58 Update

Looks like things are gettin' a little chippy. At Ad-in on Devverman's serve, Isner blisters an inside-out forehand that he thinks is in for a winner. As he's pumping his fist, Devverman calls it wide. Isner walks up to the net and appears to dispute the call (we have no sound on this web feed, so I have to fill in a few blanks here).

The call goes against Isner, so it's now 3-1 Devverman. But Isner looked smoother in that game and now maybe he's a little fired up as well.

3:46 Update
That break of serve was predictable, unfortunately. Isner played as if he had a mental hangover from the previous game, and was very loose and unfocused. After making a passing shot to win the game, Devverman sprinted over to his seat, while Isner trudged back slowly to get his towel. Uncle Mo is squarely in Devverman's corner.

Looks like Isner made need a little help from his friends today. Score update from the other courts coming up.

3:42 Update

Man, it's got to be frustrating for Isner right now. I'm getting frustrated just watching it. He's dictating almost every single point, while Devverman's doing little more than just running and retrieving, running and retrieving. But each time Isner seems to have put himself in position to really take control of the point, he makes an error. Or, when it seems Isner finally has control of the point, Devverman gets back one more ball, just keeping thing alive. At one point, after missing a short forehand, Isner bent over double, as if it say, "I can't take much more of this."

1-1 in the second set. We'll see if Isner can bounce back mentally.

3:36 Update

Hazard of doing a live blog. In the space of time it takes me to type an entry, Isner has already held serve again. 1-0 Isner in the second set, after losing the first.

3:31 Update

Devverman holds at love to win the first set, 6-4. You can pretty much explain the first set this way: Isner missed his chance to break Devverman's serve, while Devverman made the most of his lone opportunity to break Isner. Looking beyond that, though, it's clear that Isner is facing a guy with metronome-like consistency. Isner' not going to out-rally Devverman from the baseline. He needs to shorten the points and get to the net, to take advantage of his edge in the power department. Isner had his chances in the first set, but made far too many unforced errors, particularly on his approach shots.

On the other courts, it remains very tight. Georgia took the first set at No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 singles, but dropped the first set at No. 5 and No. 6 singles.

Think that doubles point was important?

Isner's teammate at No. 5 singles, freshman Nate Shnugg, also dropped the first set. But Flores and Omerzel won theirs.

3:28 Update
Now there's an impressive service game. Two aces and two service winners for Isner to close back to 5-4. Glad to see that I'm not alone in having trouble getting Isner's serve back. Heck, if the No. 2 player in all of college tennis has this much difficulty, did I ever really stand a chance? Apparently not.

3:21 Update

Spoke too soon, Devverman just broke Isner to go up 4-3.

The other matches are still tight, but Flores is up 5-3 at No. 2 singles and Matic "Omi" Omerzel is up 5-2 for Georgia at No. 4 singles.

3:10 Update

3-2 Isner. We're on serve, but this is fitting into Isner's usual match MO. Devverman's last service game just went to several deuces. Isner lost just one point on his serve. Let the wearing down process begin. Back in a minute with some score updates from the other courts ...

2:59 Update

It's 1-1 in the early going in the No. 1 singles match between Isner and UVA's Sundav Devverman. Devverman, by the way, was ranked No. 2 nationally in the final regular season ITA rankings. So it's a 1 vs. 2 matchup. Perhaps a preview of the NCAA singles tournament? Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

2:32 Update

1-0 UGA forehand volley winner by Isner.

1-1. Flores forehand in the net. Man, these UVA guys are hard to pass.

2-1 UVA Flores misses a passing shot.

2-2 UVA hits a shot in the net. Isner/Flores equally hard to pass.

3-2 UGA Isner poaches across and hammers a forehand volley winner. That's five straight points won by the server.

3-3 Isner's passing shot goes a bit long. Opportunity missed. Time to switch sides. And vomit if you're feeling a bit too nervous.

4-3 UGA. Cue the voice of Bud Collins. Mini-break! Flores hammers a forehand that UVA volleys into the net.

5-3 UGA. That ... was ... impressive. After Isner's serve forces UVA to float a return, Flores leaped high and pounded an unreturnable overhead.

6-3 UGA - Once more, just a point away.

7-3 UGA. Curse you jumpy video. It froze just as UVA served, then unfroze with the score suddenly 7-3 and the players filing off the court. Not only did we miss how UGA won the match, we also likely missed a very amusing Isner leaping fist pump.

Still, the more important thing is that Georgia gained the critical doubles point. 1-0 Bulldogs.

Time to eat something before returning to singles.

2:23 updateTiebreaker! 8-8. Oh the humanity.

2:17 update
Flores holds serve to stop the bleeding. 8-7 Georgia. He's been the stronger member of the Isner/Flores duo today. That's the beauty of doubles. When one guy's down (not saying Isner's been down, exactly, but work with me here) his partner can pick him up.

2:14 update

Not to sound too fatalistic, but if Isner and Flores drop this match, and Georgia drops the doubles point, it could be a pretty big uphill climb for the Bulldogs to pull out the overall team match.

It's now 7-7 and UVA has fought off 3 match points to even the match. Momentum is squarely on the side of the Cavaliers.

Flores to serve ...

2:05 Update

Oh boy.

It's getting a wee bit tight down in Athens. It looked like Georgia had the doubles point all but wrapped up after it won No. 3 doubles, 8-3 and Isner was serving for the match at No. 1 doubles, 7-5. But after fighting off five break points, Isner and Flores couldn't make it past No. 6. Meanwhile UVA broke serve to win at No. 2 doubles, 8-6.

So it's 1-1 in doubles matches and 7-6 Georgia, but on serve. Feel free to bit your nails.

1:43 Update

That was waaaay too easy.

Isner holds at love, giving UGA a 6-3 lead at No. 1 doubles. Remember it's an eight-game pro set.

Quick update on the other two matches. It's 4-4 at No. 2 doubles, after UVA had originally taken a 4-1 lead. And it's 5-2 Georgia at No. 3 doubles.

Remember, the team that wins at least two of the doubles matches wins the single doubles point. Then it's on to singles.

1:32 Update

I looked pretty smart two games later, when UGA picked up the first break of the match. There was an amusing moment when UVA double-faulted to lose the game and Isner leaped up in the air and pumped both fists. 1) It was pretty, ummm, dorky looking, at least on video. 2) In the strict etiquette of tennis, you usually don't celebrate any opponents' miscues like that. But hey, this is college tennis.

And did you notice that the stands behind the far court are packed? Probably 3,000 or so people there. Yep, there's a reason why Athens is frequently the host location for the NCAA tournament.

4-1 Isner and Flores.

1:19 Update

It's 1-1 now, but so far, advantage Georgia. It took Isner and Flores five points to wrap up Isner's serve. It took UVA 16 points - and two break points - to finally hold its serve. This is one thing Isner mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago. He tends to wear opponents down because he holds his serve so much easier than they do. Eventually, Isner usually breaks through.

If you're watching along on the video feed, my apologies for its jumpiness (or maybe it's just my computer). Several times it has frozen in time, then jumped ahead, with the point already finished, leaving us to wonder exactly what happened.

Oh, and thanks to UVA's orange shirts, it's kinda hard to tell the teams apart (aside from the fact that Isner is a head taller than everyone else on the court). Here's another useful tip. Georgia - hats. UVA - no hats.

1:10 Update

And we're under way!

Unlike Friday, when it was kind of tricky to tell Catherine Newman apart from her teammate, Taka Bertrand, we should have no such troubles today. Isner and his double partner, Luis Flores, are the guys dressed in red. Isner is the 6-9 right-handed white guy. Flores is the 6-2 left-handed Mexican. If you're still having trouble telling them apart, well then, I really don't know what to tell you.

Isner hammers in a serve that slices into the body of the UVA player in the deuce court. He smacks it long, and Georgia wins the first game. Anyone surprised that Isner is the first guy to serve for the Bulldogs? Me neither

12:55 Update

Okay, looks like we're moments away from getting this show on the road.

Illinois just knocked off Baylor, 4-3. This makes me happy for three reasons.

1) It gets these teams off the court and gets Isner and Georgia on. You didn't click on this blog for Baylor-Ilinois tennis updates did you? Of course not.

2) Illinois is No. 10, Baylor is No. 3. If Georgia advances to the final, technically, it's playing the weaker team. Technically. You can't exactly ignore that Illinois just knocked off the No.2 (Ohio State) and No. 3 teams in consecutive matches.

3) College tennis has long had a reputation for having a significant foreign influence. Nothing wrong with that and please don't paint me as a xenophobe. But don't you think Baylor could have given at least a little more of its scholarship money to some home-grown talent? Here's the breakdown of the Bears' top 6 - two from Germany, one from Slovenia, one from the Czech Republic, one from Hungary and one from England. God bless the USA! One theory here: Have you ever been to Waco? From what I hear, it's very possible that the only players Baylor could attract were ones who came from halfway around the world, who'd never heard of, or seen Waco. Just a theory.

Okay, the real action is just around the corner. Back in a few ...

12:28 Update:

Okay, the wait probably won't be as long as I'd anticipated. Apparently the scoreboard page had been frozen for a while and matches were farther along than I'd thought.

It's now 3-2 Baylor, but Illinois is up a set in one match and up a break in the third in the other.

More in just a bit ...

12:01 Update

Well, live at some point.

See, this is why you have me doing this live blog for you. Otherwise, you would go to the live video feed and be very confused by the sight of players from Baylor and Illinois involved in a tense singles match.

Allow me to explain: Baylor (No. 3 seed) and Illinois (No. 10 seed) are playing in the first semifinal, which began at 9 a.m. Why the NCAA continues to schedule team matches just three hours apart when both teams have to play an eight-game pro set for doubles, rest for a moment and then play a best-of-three set singles match is beyond me. So naturally, the Bears and the Fighting Illini (can we still call them that? Have they come up with a new nickname? Do they have to?) are locked in a tight match that is NOWHERE NEAR finishing. Right now it's 1-1 and at least three matches appear headed for third sets.

This is where I come in though. I'll be the one checking in periodically to give you updates, so you'll know just when Georgia and Virginia start and Isner takes the court for No. 1 doubles. No worries for you. Just check the blog every 15 minutes or so.

You can thank me later. Or now, you'd like.