After itching to get back on the court since Stanford’s heartbreaking loss to Virginia in the team quarterfinals last weekend, No. 9-seeded junior Bradley Klahn began his defense of last year’s NCAA singles title against No. 55 Jason Jung of Michigan yesterday afternoon. Meanwhile, his doubles counterpart–junior Ryan Thacher–nearly beat his second top-five opponent in as many matches.

After USC defeated Virginia in a thrilling team championship final on Tuesday, the tournament switched gears to individual play–a 64-player singles tournament and a 32-team doubles tournament. Last season, then-sophomore Klahn surprised the field en route to his first NCAA singles championship. Now ranked No. 9 in the country, Klahn has a target on his back.

The day started with a three-hour rain delay, pushing all of the matches back and threatening to cancel all 64 of the day’s scheduled matches. Luckily, by 3 p.m., the sky had cleared and championship tennis was in full swing on all seventeen of the courts at the Taube Tennis Center.

Klahn started slow. Coming off a decisive 6-4, 6-2 victory over No. 5 Michael Shabaz of Virginia in the team tourney, Klahn seemed unable to get the upper hand on Wednesday. When Jung broke Klahn’s serve in the seventh game of the first set to take a 5-3 advantage, it seemed increasingly likely that Klahn would fall behind a set. Klahn’s frustration was apparent as he repeatedly tried to pick it up, but Jung seemed to return every shot.

With his back against the wall and down 5-3, Klahn found a second gear. He held serve, broke Jung and then held serve again to take a 6-5 lead. Jung was able to force a first-set tiebreak, but Klahn outlasted the Michigan senior 7-5 in the tiebreak to take control of the match. Jung was clearly deflated in the second set and Klahn controlled play the rest of the way, claiming a 7-6 (5), 6-2 victory.

“Jason is a tough out,” Klahn said. “He is solid and going to make you work. There’s always those first round jitters coming into a tournament like this. I started to find my game toward the end of the first and start of the second, and I was able to work my way back into the match.”

Klahn said he doesn’t want to rest on his title from last year and is treating this year’s tournament no differently than any other year’s, taking everything one match at a time.

“I’m trying not to think about last year,” Klahn continued. “This is a new year and there are a lot of good players out here. I have confidence in winning this tourney knowing I have done it before, but I just need to go out there, compete hard and stick to my game plan. It’s nice being at home with the crowd so hopefully that will help out a lot.”

As Klahn won the first set and took control of his match, Thacher had begun his own battle against No. 4 Blaz Rola of Ohio State. On paper, the 46th-ranked Thacher was a heavy underdog, but the Stanford junior was coming in with plenty of confidence from unlikely victory over second-ranked Alex Domijan of Virginia in the team play. Domijan had won the National Indoor Championships earlier in the season and was undefeated in dual match play before Thacher dismantled him 6-4, 6-3 on Saturday afternoon.

Thacher took the early lead in yesterday’s match–winning the first set 7-5–and it looked like he would pull of his second major upset of the tournament. However, Rola bounced back to win the second set 6-3. Thacher threatened again in the third, breaking Rola’s serve early to take a 3-1 lead, but Rola responded by winning five straight games to secure victory–5-7, 6-3. 6-3.After the match, Rola expressed his respect for Thacher.

“I knew it was going to be a tough match,” he said. “Ryan is a really good player and has done great things at Stanford. I came in fully prepared for today’s match. We exchanged a lot of breaks, played a good match and had good points. I’m really happy that I came through.”

Despite the loss in singles play, Thacher will compete later today in the doubles tournament alongside Klahn. Thacher and Klahn are the No. 3 doubles squad in the country, but are coming off two straight losses in duals play.

Klahn next faces No. 17 Austin Krajicek in a rematch of the deciding match between Stanford and Texas A&M in last week’s round of 16. Klahn won that match 6-4, 6-3 to put Stanford into the quarterfinals.

Klahn faces off with Krajicek at 10 a.m. today and will join Thacher in doubles sometime after 2 p.m.