The men's tennis team has redefined what it means to "host" a tournament. Over the weekend, the Bears invited players from Villanova University, Marist College, Boston College and other schools to compete in the Northeast Intercollegiate Tournament - but the opposing squads had no idea what was in store for them. Even with two of their top singles players, co-captain Dan Hanegby '07 and Basu Ratnam '09, out of town at another tournament, the Bears easily captured first-place finishes in singles and doubles.
"This tournament was big for us," said Head Coach Jay Harris. "It says a lot this early in the season. I'm really excited."
In the first doubles flight, Saurabh Kohli '08 and Chris Lee '09 breezed through their first two matches against teams from Bucknell University and the University of Montreal to reach the semifinals. After soundly defeating Villanova's Dimitri Chimerakis and Sean Daly 8-2, Kohli and Lee took on Pedro Genovese and Frederico Rolon of Marist in the finals. But Genovese and Rolon, who had dispatched co-captain Eric Thomas '07 and Zach Pasanen '07 8-5 in their semifinal match, went missing for nearly an hour.
"I was just anxious to get it over with," Lee said of the wait. No one knows for sure where the two Marist players wandered off to, but when Genovese and Rolon finally returned, Kohli and Lee made them wish they had not. The Brown pair gained a measure of revenge for the delay with an 8-5 victory to win the first doubles flight.
Singles play brought even more success to the triumphant doubles pair. Kohli reached the finals of the first singles flight with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Jason Sechrist of BC. Lee also reached the finals by defeating BC's Soma Kesthely 7-5, 6-4 in his semifinal match. Kohli, who was suffering from multiple injuries including blisters and shoulder pain, then forfeited the final match to Lee.
"I was pretty solid throughout the whole weekend," Lee said of his matching victories in doubles and singles.
In the second singles flight, Noah Gardner '09 fell to Matt Fawcett of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 4-6, 6-0, 1-0 (8) in the first round but bounced back to defeat Paul Guarino of Lafayette College in the race for ninth place. Gardner was ahead 6-1 when Guarino retired. Though Gardner dropped his next match against David Desrochers of Montreal, Harris was impressed with the sophomores' overall performance.
"Noah Gardner is playing very well. He really showed that he's ready to step up and compete at a high level," Harris said.
While the rest of the team was competing in Providence, Hanegby and Ratnam were in Charlottesville, Va., at the University of Virginia Fall Invitational. In the Blue Singles flight, 57th-ranked Hanegby defeated Kiril Dimitrov of Duke University 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 and followed that up with an impressive 6-1, 7-5 victory over 15th-ranked Arnaud Lecloerec of Virginia Commonwealth University.
Ratnam competed in the Red Singles flight, defeating Ryan Johnson of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte 6-1, 6-2. He lost his next match to Wake Forest University's Mariusz Adamski.
"Dan had two huge wins, and Basu picked up a nice win," Harris said. "It was a good weekend overall, whether we were here or in Virginia."
While the team was pleased with its first showing of the year, the journey has just begun. "Every year is so different," Thomas said. "It's a process learning how to react to certain situations."
According to Thomas, one of the team's greatest strengths this year is its depth. "Anybody can play any position," Thomas said. "It's exciting."
Next weekend, the Bears will compete at the Cincinnati Invitational, which will include nine of the top 50 teams in the nation. "The competition will continue to increase," Harris said. "It will be a nice challenge."
