For the men's tennis team, sometimes one championship is just not enough. On Tuesday, the Bears took their second straight doubles title at the ITA Northeast Regional Championships with a victory by co-captain Eric Thomas '07 and Basu Ratnam '09.
With the win the pair qualified for the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, and completed the Bears' showing at the ITA Northeast Regional Championships, which were hosted by the University of Pennsylvania. Thomas and Ratnam follow in the footsteps of Phil Charm '06 and co-captain Dan Hanegby '07, who won last year's doubles title.
"Eric and Basu stayed tough throughout their matches," said Head Coach Jay Harris. "They had a lot of pride in the Bruno ability."
Thomas and Ratnam got off to a strong start Friday by easily defeating Ryan Berger and Brad Hunter of Penn State University 8-1. The next day's match led to a similar result, as the pair from Brown first cruised by the team of Yules Hadisubroto and Mike Rockman of the State University of New York at Buffalo by a score of 8-1. The duo then continued its run Sunday with an 8-3 win over Penn's Jason Pinsky and Eric Riley. The next day's quarterfinal match pitted the Bears against Columbia's Mark Clemente and Jonathan Wong, but the Lions were no match for the Bears this time around. Thomas and Ratnam prevailed with a solid 8-5 victory.
"We came out with a lot more energy than our opponents did," Thomas said. "Our energy was at a higher level than any other team's."
Monday's semifinal match posed the first real challenge for Thomas and Ratnam, as they had to battle Hanegby and Chris Lee '09, their teammates and the tournament's second-seeded doubles pair. Hanegby and Lee had taken a bye in the first round before collecting their own impressive string of victories that included an 8-2 quarterfinal win over the fifth-seeded team of Scott Denenberg and Gideon Valkin of Harvard.
But Hanegby and Lee were taken down by their unseeded teammates by a score of 8-3 in the semifinals.
"It's hard to play against your own team," Thomas said. "You want to be intense, but you don't want to come across as being mean, especially to your teammates. But we treated it like it was just another match. We were the underdogs, and we played that way."
The pair continued their tough playing in Tuesday's finals, defeating Michael James and Adam Slagter of Penn State 8-5 to take the title.
"We came out with a lot of intensity," Ratnam said. "We focused on basic stuff. We've been serving well and returning well all week."
Harris told The Herald he was amused by the fact that Thomas and Ratnam had to defeat a team from Penn State in order to take the doubles title - despite the fact that they have both received the Joe Paterno Outstanding Male Freshman Athlete Award, whis honorsthe famous Penn State football coach and member of the class of 1950.
For Thomas, the championship was special for a different reason. A few weeks ago, his best friend was killed in a car accident, and the tragedy affected Thomas' ability to compete.
"I haven't been the same. I haven't been able to lead the team the way I want to," he said. "But this win was a turning point for me. I felt my friend out there on the court with me."
This mentality inspired Thomas' singles performances in addition to his doubles title. Thomas advanced to the fourth round in singles, where he lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to second-seeded Arvid Puranen of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. According to Harris, "it was the highest-level match of the tournament."
Saurabh Kohli '08, however, earned the Bears' best singles results of the tournament. Kohli defeated the seventh and 10th seeds on his way to the quarterfinals, besting Columbia's No. 1 singles player, Mark Clemente, 7-6 (5), 7-5 along the way.
"It was nice to come back and beat up on Columbia a little bit," Harris said, acknowledging the Bears' loss to Columbia at the ECAC Championships Oct. 1. This time, the Bears only suffered one loss to Columbia over the course of the tournament, winning an impressive five matches over the Lions.
Since the ECAC loss, the team has focused on growing tougher mentally. "We're always the fittest team out there, but most importantly, our minds were sharp this week," Ratnam said.
"Saurabh Kohli for sure demonstrated that," Harris said. "He's the most improved guy on the team in terms of his mental skills."
Thomas echoed this sentiment. "(Saurabh) beat players he wasn't expected to beat," Thomas said. "He used to play really aggressively, but he played with more intelligence this week."
Playing intelligently will certainly be a focus for Thomas as he prepares for the National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, which will begin Nov. 2 in Columbus, Ohio. The tournament will bring together the top 16 doubles teams in the country.
"We'll be focusing on the things that got us here," Ratnam said, citing serves, returns and volleys in particular.
"This is sort of a new thing," Thomas said of the fact that he and Ratnam have not competed much as a doubles team. "But it felt great playing with him."
