Men's tennis shows promise for spring

By Casey Michel     9/17/09 7:00pm

While Assistant Coach Efe Ustundag (Baker '99) was busy firing off "50-year-old" guns as part of his mandatory Turkish military service, the rest of the men's team used the summer as an opportunity to train. Fortunately, Ustundag's conscription lasted only three weeks, so the coach was able to help his players through the varied, though not necessarily difficult, competition at last weekend's Rice Fall Invitational. The Owls netted an impressive showcase at the Invitational, a mixture of singles and doubles draws. Bumped out of Jake Hess Tennis Stadium because of a weekend of rain, Rice sent all but one of its players - senior Bruno Rosa, arguably the most talented of the bunch - to face off with athletes from Louisiana State University, Southern Methodist University, Tulane University and Prairie View A&M University.

Rosa's absence in no way hindered Rice's showing, as the tournament scrapped team scoring in favor of individual competition. In singles, the Owls rang up a record of 9-6, although sophomore Christian Saravia was the only member of the squad to take first place in his flight. Fellow sophomore Isamu Tachibana narrowly missed out on claiming the singles title, falling 4-6, 6-1, 1-0 (10-6) to LSU's Julian Gauthier.

Had the match been played outdoors, however, Tachibana may have found himself on the winning side of the match. In order to make up for time lost to transportation, the tournament replaced the third set with a 10-point tie-breaker. This change not only hindered Tachibana from victory, but, Ustundag said, also precluded him and his fellow coaches from getting a complete idea of how a summer off had affected the team.

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"The thing is that we had a great tournament with all the results and percentages, but it was hard to tell where we stand physically [and] mentally," Ustundag said. "It was a lot better than playing against each other - we got to play under some pressure, [and] I think it gives us an idea of who's standing out, who we can expect to see more of this semester and next . but I would have loved to have seen them play more tennis."

Even if Tachibana had lost, the stock placed in his match's outcome was nowhere near as significant as Ustundag's desire to see where his team stood. Sophomore Sam Garforth-Bles, who finished runner-up in Singles Flight B to SMU's Darren Walsh, was not as disappointed in his second-round loss because, as he said, the tournament was used mainly to get the season off the ground.

"My only expectations were to put a good match together, because we haven't had that much match play this year," Garforth-Bles said. "Results kind of came second. It was more of how I played individually, and I think I played pretty well."

While the scores were certainly significant, they did not carry the weight of late-season matches. Ustundag concurred, pointing out that the team had only had three official practices heading into the invitational.

Likewise, the team also wanted to see how the team's newest members shaped up. The most surprising of the three, according to Ustundag, was the only new freshman, Jonathan Chang. The Memorial High School graduate topped senior Dennis Polyakov in straight sets to take second place in Singles Flight C, right behind Saravia.

The Owls will face a similar test this weekend when they enter the Midland Invitational in Midland, Texas. The slotting will be almost the same: 32 singles draws and 16 doubles draws, with every squad sending only a few of their top members to compete. Because the talent will be compressed, there won't be any fluff matches for the Owls, who will be facing members from Texas A&M University and SMU, among others.

Again, the results of the tournament won't be at the top of the team's watch-list. The squad will instead remain focused on observing its fitness and skill - a task made tougher because of the distracting poshness.

"You stay with families - nobody stays at hotels," Ustundag said, noting the tournament's cost-effectiveness. "It's a really, really pleasant tournament to play in.

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