Two Trojan teams duel for doubles title

The No. 1 USC men’s tennis team proved they are worthy of the high praise they received with a strong performance at the Sherwood Collegiate Cup in Westlake, Calif. this past weekend.

The Trojans excelled in the doubles bracket where the teams of senior Robert Farah and sophomore Steve Johnson, senior Jason McNaughton and sophomore Daniel Nguyen and sophomore Matt Kecki and junior Jaak Poldma all qualified for the quarterfinals.

On top of that, the final featured two USC squads with Farah and Johnson beating out McNaughton and Nguyen 8-3.

The Trojans proved their competitive mettle in the all-USC final.

“It’s fun to play against USC, we’ve got a great team of competitors,” Farah said.

The team of Farah and Johnson was able to improve upon the previous year’s performance at Sherwood where they lost in the doubles finals.

The road to the finals did not go as anticipated before the tournament as freshmen J.T. Sundling was forced to sit out of the tournament on account of illness before it began.

To compensate for Sundling’s loss, McNaughton and Nguyen paired up and excelled against the competition. They faced the No. 1 ranked duo of sophomores Ryan Thacher/Bradley Klahn from Stanford in the semifinals and won 8-6 to advance to the finals.

In the singles bracket, top-seeded Johnson and Poldma advanced to the quarterfinals, and No. 1 seed Robert Farah qualified for the semifinals where he lost a tough match to eventual singles tournament champion Klahn in three sets 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

Injuries were a big story line as the weekend progressed. Along with Sundling’s illness, Johnson had to pull out of the singles bracket after the quarterfinals because of an aggravated minor back injury during doubles play. Kecki was also not at his best during the tournament.

Peter Smith said the team is concerned with injuries as they start to get back in the swing of things

“We have to make sure we are healthy. We had some bumps and bruises coming back from break,” Smith said.

The injuries do not seem like they will affect the team long-term, Farah said, and, if they do, he feels that the team will be able to fill in the missing pieces.

“We have great players on the team. Another player will step in to take the spot of an injured teammate,” Farah said.

The squad proved its depth and adaptability in their strong performance in doubles, but Smith is still trying to find the right lineup for the long haul.

“I didn’t use the combinations that I wanted because of J.T.’s illness. I know we have good doubles players. I’m just trying to find the right combos,“ Smith said.

Although the team still has some questions to answer in doubles and left more to be desired in singles play, this weekend’s performance made a good impression on the Trojans as they await the official start of the season.

“Overall it was a good tournament for the majority of the team,“ Smith said.