USC doubles pair favored to win again
Posted October 14, 2009 at 9:40 pm in Featured, Sports, Tennis
The USC men’s tennis team will take the courts at Pepperdine University today for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional tournament in Malibu, Calif.
The tournament will provide several Trojans with an opportunity to qualify for the ITA National Indoor tournament that will be held in November. No. 3 senior Robert Farah and No. 18 sophomore Steve Johnson secured a spot at the National Indoor Tournament when they each reached the semifinal round of the All-American Tennis Championships last weekend in Tulsa, Okla.
Partner in crime · Robert Farah (above) will team up with Steve Johnson in doubles competition and try to win the ITA Regionals title. - Eric Wolfe | Daily Trojan
“It’s another fall tournament and it’s important and it’s kind of strange now that Robert and Steve aren’t going to play singles, but I think we’ll do great,” coach Peter Smith said.
No. 3 doubles team Farah and Johnson, however, will team up once again for some doubles action this weekend in Malibu. Last year Farah and Johnson left the tournament with a doubles title after defeating Pepperdine’s Omar Altmann and Bassam Beidas in the championship match. As with last year, the duo enters the tournament as the No. 1 seed.
Johnson said he feels more prepared after last weekend’s tournament.
“Absolutely, it’s all about getting matches. You can’t have match play in practice. It’s hard to recreate that in practice,” he said.
Johnson also said that he and Farah are hopeful that this year will be a repeat of last, and the pair will walk away champions.
“We’re seeded one so we should win the tournament, but I thought we played really well even though we lost at All-Americans,” he said.
The Trojans will be experimenting with other doubles combinations this weekend. No. 49 junior Jaak Poldma and sophomore Daniel Nguyen will team up as the No. 4 seed. Senior Jason McNaughton will pair up with freshman JT Sundling. All three Trojan doubles pairs have a bye in the first round of the tournament.
Nguyen has been playing with Sundling lately, but Smith is anxious to see what this new combination will bring.
“I know how good JT and Daniel are together, I’m curious to see how good they are away from each other,” Smith said.
Set to compete in the singles tournament are Poldma, Nguyen, McNaughton, Sundling, junior Daniel Gliner and sophomore Ben Lankenau. McNaughton made it to the round of 16 last year before being eliminated.
This year Smith is counting on McNaughton to step up and show what he can do.
“I’m hopeful that Jason McNaughton can kind of get rid of his rust. I know what a great player he is,” Smith said. “He had surgery and so he’s battling a few things.
“That’s what’s so great about athletics, everybody has their own story so you want to see them do their best,” he added.
No. 5-seeded Poldma, No. 9-seeded Nguyen and Sundling have byes in the first round. Lankenau will face off with UC Irvine’s John Kazarian at 10:30 a.m. Gliner will match up with UC Santa Barbara’s Devin Nerenberg at noon and McNaughton will take on Cal Poly’s Rob Foy at noon as well.
The teams participating in the tournament include Arizona, UCLA, University of San Diego and UC Irvine. Overall, it’s a chance for the Trojans to face off with the local competition, something Smith said he believes is important.
“It’s always interesting and special to play close by with the competition you’re going to face the most,” Smith said.
Doubles matches are set to start up at 9 a.m., with singles play beginning at 10 a.m.
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This article is tagged: Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional, National Indoor Tournament, Robert Farah
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