The men's tennis team kicked off its season over the weekend with double the fun. On Friday, the more seasoned players on the team traveled to Flushing Meadows, N.Y., the site of the U.S. Open, to compete at the USTA Invitational, before returning to Providence the next night to catch the conclusion of the Northeast Intercollegiate, where their teammates competed.
In New York, captain Chris Lee '09 won his first-round match in the first singles flight to advance to the quarterfinals. Lee defeated Princeton's Peter Capkovic, last season's Ivy League Player of the Year, by a score of 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (5).
"I had a really good win, even though I wasn't playing at one hundred percent," Lee said, referring to a pulled quadriceps muscle. "Beating the Ivy League Player of the Year was really good for me."
Unfortunately, Lee said he pulled his quad again at the end of that match, and as a result, he had to retire from his quarterfinal match against Jonas Berg from the University of Mississippi.
"Pulling out of my second match was a big bummer," he said.
Also competing in the first singles flight, Jonathan Pearlman '11 lost 6-3, 6-2 to another Rebel, Bram ten Berge.
In the third singles flight, captain Sam Garland '09, captain Noah Gardner '09 and Kendrick Au '11 dropped their first-round matches, as did Charlie Posner '11 in the fourth singles flight.
"Everyone fought pretty hard," Lee said. "But we're all a little rusty."
Despite the rustiness, the Bears made a strong showing in doubles play. Lee and Posner edged out Harvard's Chris Clayton, the No. 69 singles player in preseason rankings, and Alexei Chijoff-Evans by a score of 9-8 (7-4), but had to withdraw from the quarterfinal match due to Lee's injury.
Gardner and Garland also reached the quarterfinals of the first doubles flight, by earning an 8-6 victory over Kyle Doppelt and Joshua Goldstein of Cornell. The Bears were then defeated 8-3 by Princeton's George Carpeni and Alex Kruger-Wyman.
In the second doubles flight, Au and Pearlman dropped a close 8-6 match to the Crimson's Alistair Felton and Michael Kalfayan.
Lee said the tournament provided the team with an opportunity to bond with new assistant coach Nestor Bernabe, who accompanied the Bears to New York while Head Coach Jay Harris remained in Providence to run the Northeast Intercollegiate.
Bernabe is "awesome," Lee said. "He's a great guy. He's really engaging on the court."
The Bears then traveled back to Providence Saturday night, so they would be able to cheer on Skate Gorham '10 in the semifinals and finals of the first singles flight of the Northeast Intercollegiate the next morning.
Last season, Gorham suffered an ACL tear that kept him from competing for most of the year.
"This weekend was the first time in over a year I've even played a full match of singles, let alone three of them in two days," Gorham said. "It was great being out there on the courts playing for Brown again."
After Gorham's first-round opponent withdrew, Gorham defeated Dominic Hemy of Farleigh Dickinson University 6-2, 6-2 to reach the semifinals.
Against Bucknell's Ryan Sandburg, Gorham dropped the first set 6-2 but breezed by his opponent 6-1, 6-2 in the next two sets to advance to the finals, where Martin MacIntyre of Colgate beat him 7-5, 6-3 despite Gorham having set points in the first set.
"As much as I wanted to win the tournament and was upset with myself for losing, I have to be realistic and understand that I'm definitely not one hundred percent healed," Gorham said. "My mobility is still on the mend."
Andrew Yazmer '12 also competed in the first singles flight, making his first appearance for the Bears. After losing his first-round match 6-2, 6-2 to Bucknell's Zach Hascoe, Yazmer earned straight-set wins over Cameron Parker of Harvard and Simon Miller of Brandeis University by scores of 6-4, 6-4 and 6-1, 6-1, respectively. Yazmer then outlasted Villanova's Brian Maher 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 to take ninth place overall.
Fellow freshman Jimmy Crystal '12 advanced to the quarterfinals of the second singles flight by defeating Villanova's Alex Leeser by a score of 6-2, 1-6, 6-3. Crystal then fell 6-3, 6-4 to Cristian Balestrieri of Bryant.
The Bears rounded out the tournament with a quarterfinals showing in the first doubles flight. Gorham and Yazmer nabbed an 8-4 victory over Donald Van Velzer and Josh Krieter of the United States Military Academy before dropping an 8-4 match to Hemy and Andrew Denny of FDU.
"I truly think we as a team work way harder physically in these early months of school than certainly all the other Ivies, let alone a lot of college tennis in general, so to some degree the guys were feeling the effects of that," Gorham said.
The Bears will next host the Bruno Classic, Oct. 3 to 5, and according to Lee, the team is excited to host another tournament.
"We're only getting better from here, which is a good thing," he said.
