Stanford men’s tennis was on the road this weekend for final singles and doubles tournaments before the start of the dual matches next week. While the whole men’s roster competed in the Sherwood Cup, the women’s team split its quad between the NCTC Classic in Indian Wells and the Freeman Memorial Championships in Las Vegas.
The men’s team asserted its dominance in Thousand Oaks, California by placing five players — fifth year Eric Fomba, senior Tom Fawcett, junior Sameer Kumar, sophomore William Genesen and freshman Axel Geller — in the quarterfinals of the singles draw.
Fawcett, the tournament’s No. 2 seed, defeated teammate Genesen 6-4, 6-3, where he was joined by Kumar and Fomba, who pulled off victories of their own. In the semifinals, Fawcett edged UCLA’s Keegan Smith in a three-setter thriller, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5. The other game saw Kumar beat Fomba in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4.
In an all-Cardinal final, Fawcett was able to come out on top as he edged Kumar in two sets, both by the score of 7-6.
Although getting out the main draw early, senior David Wilczynski managed to reach the finals of the consolation draw before eventually coming short against UCLA’s Maxime Cressy 7-5, 6-2.
Stanford also performed highly in doubles, as the team placed a pair in the finals of both the main and consolation draws. While Kumar and junior Michael Genender were unable to bring the crown home, Fomba and Genesen captured the consolation title after winning two games in the same day.
On the women’s side, freshman Janice Shin highlighted the weekend as she went undefeated in singles play. Shin won all three of her game in straight sets and also teamed up with sophomore Emma Higuchi to win all three doubles matched she participated in. Over their three wins, Shin and Higuchi outscored their opponents 24 games to six.
Heading into the regular dual season, both teams boasted strong performance in their respective tournaments and seem to have adjusted doubles combinations to account for the graduation of the class of 2017. The men’s team will kick off its season first with back-to-back home games against UCF and Georgetown this Friday and Sunday. On the other hand, the women will have to wait an extra week until they host San Jose State in their home and season opener on Jan. 27.
Contact Alexandre Bucquet at bucqueta ‘at’ stanford.edu.