Men's tennis triumphs during West Coast trip

By Casey Michel     3/12/09 7:00pm

The men's tennis team has not always had the best luck playing doubles. Despite owning a singles set that has clinched top 30 rankings throughout the decade, the doubles teams have consistently hung like a cloud over the beginning of each match, creating question marks that always mocked Rice's progress.But this year seems to be different. After one of the Owls' top players, 49th-ranked junior Bruno Rosa, faltered early on, and junior Chong Wang, the third-best Owl, departed due to off-court issues, Rice's singles play has been marked by relative struggles.

However, it has been the doubles teams that have kept Rice's season alive, much to the pleasure of the coaching staff.

"I've felt really good about our doubles," assistant coach Efe Ustundag (Baker '99) said. "Looking that sharp only makes us feel more confident. Our No. 1 tennis team [of seniors Tobias Scheil and Christoph Müller] is capable of beating anybody when they play aggressively, when they play smart tennis."

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Ustundag is right to be confident when talking about the doubles program. With a 9-4 record midway through the season, the doubles teams have compiled 25 wins in 39 chances, good for a .641 winning percentage.

But the 14 dropped sets do not equate 14 dropped match points, as collegiate tennis teams need to win two out of the three doubles contests to win their team a point. Thus, the Owls have taken the doubles point in 10 of their matches, including victories against then-No. 17 University of Miami and then-No. 16 Florida State University plus a sweep against then-No. 63 University of San Diego on March 3.

An even better sign for the Owls? All but one of the tandems used are on a winning streak. The only one that is coming off a loss is the duo of freshmen Isamu Tachibana and No. 103 Sam Garforth-Bles. However, this should not be cause for concern, as the two have since taken on new partners.

For Tachibana, his new duo partnership with Rosa, who began the year with Wang, has brought out some of the best tennis he has played so far.

"He's always humble enough to help me with just minor things,"

Tachibana said. "I sometimes get down on myself when I make mistakes, and I feel like I'm going to let him down because he's a better player than I am, but he's one of those guys that no matter what happens, he's always helping me stay on top of my game."

Tachibana and Rosa began their pairing by demolishing the Toreros' Nicola Bubnic and Nils Schive 8-1, setting the tone for the rest of Rice's match in San Diego. After the rest of the tandems clinched the doubles point, Rice's singles slate went to work on its opponent.

Although Müller, currently ranked 37th in the nation, dropped his first match of the year with a straight-set loss to No. 81 Dean Jackson, the rest of the singles lineup picked up the slack. Rosa led the way with a 6-4, 6-1 win against Charl Wolmarans, and junior Dennis Polyakov put the Owls within a point with a straight-set throttling of Schive.

Bubnic rebounded with a win over Tachibana, but Scheil outlasted Chris Coetzee in a 1-6, 6-1, 1-0 (10-7) match-clinching victory.

"The key, which we've been struggling with, is protecting leads and finishing off matches," Ustundag said. "It's always [good] when you win a 5-2 match and of the four singles you win, three are in straight sets. It was good to not all of a sudden fall asleep and all of a sudden find yourself battling in the second set."

Even though it was a strong comeback, Scheil's performance was not the highlight of his week. The senior has been half of Rice's toughest doubles duo this year, partnering with Müller to headline Rice's doubles attack. Although the two only have an 8-5 record, their No. 50 ranking was attained by battling with the strongest pairs Rice's opponents showed.

Before last week, Scheil and Müller's best performance was an 8-6 win against Texas Christian University's 12th-ranked tandem of Amanu Brighiu and Adrian Simon.

But that win was eclipsed by their run in last weekend's 120th Pacific Coast Men's Doubles Championship, the second-oldest tennis event in the country, which saw the two earn their share of impressive wins.

Open to doubles teams of all ages, Müller and Scheil beat the No. 1 seed of San Diego State University coach Gene Carswell and SDSU assistant Ryan Redondo.

After a semifinal win against a pair of unattached entrants, Müller and Scheil squared off with the University of California-Los Angeles's No. 1 pair, Mohamed Abid and Nicolas Meister. Although the Owls had a 6-3, 2-0 lead, the Bruins went on an impressive run to grab a spot on top of the podium.

But Müller and Scheil, who earned Conference USA Players of the Week honors, were not the only Owls who finished deeper in the Championship than expected. In another sign of combined talent, Tachibana and Rosa hacked their way to the semifinals, but, like their teammates, lost to Abid and Meister.

Despite the doubles defeat, Tachibana took the run as a sign of things to come.

"I honestly thought we were going to win in the end," he said. "Just a couple things didn't turn our way, but I'm excited to play with him for however long I need to."

After seven weeks on the road, Rice will finally return to Jake Hess Tennis Stadium today against No. 51 Duke University, who has dropped

11 spots in the rankings since March 3. On Sunday the Owls will welcome C-USA rival University of Southern Mississippi, currently ranked 74th in the nation.

But the home respite is quick, as the team heads back on the road to Austin to face No. 10 University of Texas on Tuesday.

When asked what it would take to beat the Longhorns, Ustundag drew a blank.

"Honestly, I have no idea," he said. "We've played way too many close matches and lost, to actually think about what Texas may bring to the table. I feel like we always play well against them, but I have absolutely no idea.

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