It was a successful day for Stanford men’s tennis on Thursday at the Taube Tennis Center, as junior Bradley Klahn–Stanford’s lone hope for the NCAA Singles Championship–advanced to the third round. And his day only got better from there.
After defeating second-round opponent senior Austin Krajicek in straight sets, Klahn and his doubles partner, fellow Stanford junior Ryan Thacher, won their opening match in the doubles portion of the NCAA Tournament.
Klahn had an easier time on the court in the second match of his title defense, dispatching Krajicek 6-1, 6-4–the second time in a week that Klahn has defeated Krajicek. A week ago, in the round of 16 of the NCAA Team Tournament, the match between Texas A&M and Stanford was clinched by Klahn, when he struck the final shot in his 6-4, 6-3 victory over Krajicek. The luck of the singles draw brought the two All-Americans back together again on Thursday on the same court. It was a different day and a different tournament, but unfortunately for Krajicek, the result was the same.
The victorious Klahn, the defending NCAA singles champion from a year ago when he shocked the college tennis world in Athens, Ga., acknowledged the difficulty of facing Krajicek again.
“It’s certainly hard,” he said about defeating the same player twice in a week. “I’ve known Austin for a while. We’re good friends and travel together, so that’s not easy.
“I thought I started off a lot better today –energized and not as sluggish as yesterday,” he continued. “I thought I really played aggressively at the start, kind of took it to him, got him off balance a little bit. I was pleased with my play.”
Klahn will need to continue his energized play as he looks to repeat his title. On Friday, he will face off against No. 22 Jose Hernandez of the University of North Carolina, who is coming off an impressive upset win over Florida’s Alexandre Lacroix, ranked No. 7 in the country.
Klahn’s side of the draw has started to open up a little bit, as many of the top-ranked players have fallen to lesser-ranked foes. No. 2 Alex Domijan of Virginia, No. 6 Eric Quigley of Kentucky and Lacroix have all been removed from Klahn’s path, leaving No. 4 Rhyne Williams of Tennessee as the only higher-ranked player left on his side of the draw. Then again, as Klahn showed the country last year, rankings only mean so much.
Seeded No. 3 in the doubles portion of the NCAA tournament, Klahn and Thacher breezed through their opening match against Kentucky’s Brad Cox and Eric Quigley, 6-1, 7-6 (5). The Cardinal doubles team has experienced success before in the NCAA Tournament, losing a tight match in last year’s semifinals to Drew Courtney and Michael Shabaz of Virginia, who are seeded No. 2 in this year’s tournament. Thacher, who lost a hard-fought match against Ohio State’s No. 5 seeded Blaz Rola yesterday, has been eliminated from the singles event but still has a chance to win a national title on his home court with teammate Klahn.
The doubles team returns to the courts this afternoon at 3 p.m. against the No. 24 seeded team of Clifford Muarsland and Ashley Watling, from the University of Tulsa.