The Stanford men’s tennis team, now competing in the singles and doubles portion of the NCAA championships, had a successful day on Thursday, with Bradley Klahn advancing into the Sweet 16 of the singles tournament and the duo of Klahn and fellow senior Ryan Thacher winning their first round doubles matchup.
Klahn, playing the day after his impressive, straight-set upset victory over No. 4-seed Jarmere Jenkins, continued his stellar play by knocking off No. 27 Remi Boutillier of Fresno State 6-1, 6-1. Klahn rolled right from the get-go on Thursday, dominating Boutillier and cruising to an easy victory. Boutillier has been a familiar opponent for Klahn as Stanford and Fresno State have squared off in each of Klahn’s four seasons with the Cardinal.
Thursday’s victory was a continuation of the extremely strong play that Klahn has exhibited since returning from an injury that had cost him much of the first half of his senior season. True to the form that Cardinal fans have come to expect of Klahn during his Stanford career, he has elevated the quality of his play for the postseason, having lost just twice in his last 15 singles matches. Both of those losses came at the hands of No. 1 Steve Johnson of USC.
Seeded No. 4 in the doubles portion of the NCAAs, Klahn and Thacher gritted through a tough two-set victory in their opening round match. Against Niall Fitzgerald and Casey Watt of Notre Dame, the Cardinal pair consistently came up more clutch than their Irish counterparts in the match’s most critical situations, eventually closing out a 6-4, 7-6 (2) victory.
Klahn and Thacher—close friends and roommates on the road—have had a prolific doubles career and an NCAA doubles championship would be the crowning achievement to a fantastic doubles career on the Farm.
Klahn now faces off against No. 10 seed Cole Buchanan of Ohio State at 7 a.m. PST this morning with a berth in the Elite Eight on the line.
In doubles, Klahn and Thacher’s next opponents are the dangerous No. 16 seed Henrique Cunha and Chris Mengel of Duke University. That match is slated to start at 1 p.m. PST today.