After stumbling out of the gate, the Stanford men’s tennis team finally seems to be firing on all cylinders.
The No. 15 Cardinal will look to extend a season-best five-match winning streak this afternoon against No. 8 Baylor at the Taube Family Tennis Center.
The team was inactive for two weeks during finals but showed no signs of rust during an impressive Midwest road trip. Stanford took down No. 11 Illinois in a hard-fought 4-3 match and cruised 5-2 against No. 28 Michigan in Ann Arbor.
“It’s hard to say if taking a few weeks off helped us,” said top singles player sophomore Bradley Klahn, “but we definitely seemed rejuvenated.”
Regardless, Stanford came home with two of its best wins of the season and a newfound sense of confidence.
A big part of the team’s turnaround can be attributed to the recent play of Denis Lin. The freshman has been on a tear ever since he was inserted into the singles lineup three weeks ago against Utah.
Lin has won four straight singles matches after spending the early part of the season as a doubles specialist.
“It’s definitely nice to be able to play singles and put some points on the board,” Lin said.
“My energy level has been really good and I’m feeling pretty confident in my game right now,” continued the freshman. “I just need to focus on staying more consistent.”
Stanford flew home from Michigan on Friday and had to quickly prepare for its first Pac-10 match of the year against No. 32 Arizona. The Cardinal’s losses against Cal and USC in February will not count towards the conference standings.
Stanford swept all three doubles matches against the Wildcats to take a 1-0 lead which it would never relinquish. The Cardinal has captured the doubles point in 11 of its 13 matches so far this season.
Head coach John Whitlinger is quick to assert that securing the doubles point is essential to winning close matches against top competition and the statistics back him up. Stanford is 10-1 this year when it wins the doubles point and 0-2 when it doesn’t.
“Doubles has definitely been one of our strong points this year,” said Klahn, who plays No. 1 doubles with fellow sophomore Ryan Thacher. “I think the key is that we found partners early on that worked well and we’ve stuck with them.”
Senior Richard Wire and junior Alex Clayton have been dominant at times as the second doubles team. The pair won 26 points in a row against UNC-Wilmington.
Freshman Matt Kandath and Lin hold down the third doubles spot.
Klahn, Hirshman and Thacher all won their matches in straight sets to clinch the Arizona match.
Stanford’s only blemish was No. 35 Alex Clayton’s loss to Arizona’s Andres Arrango in the second singles match, 6-3, 6-3. Lin and senior Richard Wire pulled out three-set victories to put the emphasis on a breezy 6-1 victory for the Cardinal.
Today, Stanford and Baylor square off in the fourth annual HP Cup, a home-and-home series showcasing a battle between two teams that are usually in the hunt for the national title come May.
Hewlett Packard Company’s CEO Mark Hurd was a letter winner on the Baylor tennis team during the 1970s.
Stanford tennis has a sour history with Baylor, having lost all nine matches it has played against Baylor dating back to 1999, including two losses in the NCAA Tournament.
No. 10 Baylor upset No. 4 Stanford 4-3 last year in the HP Cup in Waco, Texas. Stanford senior Blake Muller was upset by then-freshman Maros Horny, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 in the deciding match.
“We left feeling like it was a match we could have won and should have won,” Klahn said. “That match definitely makes you want to lay it all out there and get a victory.”
Stanford will try to maintain its current hot streak today against Baylor at 3 p.m. at the Taube Family Tennis Center.