Trojans pick up two wins in Pac-12/SEC Showdown
The USC men’s tennis team capped off a sweep of two SEC powerhouses this weekend with a 4-0 upset over the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs Saturday and another 4-0 victory over the No. 11 Florida Gators on Sunday to conclude the Pac-12/SEC Showdown Tournament held at Marks Tennis Stadium.
Smooth operator · Junior Yannick Hanfmann was key to the Trojans’ success over the weekend, not dropping a single set in singles or doubles. – Ralf Cheung | Daily Trojan
Florida, despite losing Spencer Newman to a badly sprained ankle, brought a steady performance, but were unable to overcome the Trojans’ field of veterans.
The matchup to watch was on court one, where senior Ray Sarmiento and junior Yannick Hanfmann were up against Florida’s Stephane Piro and Michael Alford. After a slow start, with Florida winning the first game, Sarmiento and Hanfmann came back strong. Despite going down and seemingly turning his ankle, Hanfmann was able to shake it off and dominate the rest of the game; Sarmiento and Hanfmann went on to win the second game, and the rest of the set. Taking the doubles 6-3, the USC Trojans were able to get themselves on the scoreboard first.
In his singles set, No. 10 Sarmiento went up against Florida’s Diego Hidalgo. Sarmiento was still able to keep his cool, and secure a 6-2, 6-2 lead.
Sarmiento showed his strengths in numerous solid backhands, serves and volleys showing not just his power, but his skill. Sarmiento controlled the points with excellent shot placements and being aggressive toward the net.
“[I was] making a lot of balls and working the point until I got that absolute short ball and I could come in and finish the point off,” Sarmiento said.
Hanfmann also showed his maturity this match, as head coach Peter Smith credited the pair’s success as helpful in taking pressure off the other doubles teams.
Other powerful players were freshman Connor Farren and junior Roberto Quiroz, whose combined forces allowed the duo to take out Florida’s Maxx Lipman and Gordon Watson 6-2. The duo completed the first doubles match, showing both efficiency and ease in their game. Both were able to close out convincingly, and both were able to carry their leads into their singles sets.
In his singles set, Farren was ready to wrap up his match early, hitting his stride in the second set and defeating Lipmann 6-5 (5), 6-3.
Despite the lopsided victory, Coach Peter Smith was displeased with some of his players’ attitudes in Sunday’s match against Florida.
“To be honest I thought we were soft — I thought we played soft today,” Smith said. “As a team, not every single guy, but I felt like a few of our guys came out maybe looking for someone else to do the job and to me it’s completely unacceptable.”
Smith refused to state the names of the players who upset him, but he was unreserved in his compliments of Sarmiento.
“I’ll tell you what: Raymond Sarmiento, that guy has turned into a man and I’m so proud of him,” Smith said. “He’s really, really grown up and I would say probably the biggest change I’ve ever seen in one of my players. Really, really I mean that was great tennis he played.”
Asked about his coach’s glowing comments, Sarmiento was flattered and sounded determined to continue his strong play this season.
“That’s a pretty big compliment coming from [Smith],” Sarmiento said. “It’s a mindset, I guess. I just kind of changed my mindset and my mentality. I’m really being more patient out there and using my legs a lot more and just staying in the points that much longer.”
Smith, Sarmiento and the rest of the USC men’s tennis team will look to keep up their high standard of play Friday at 1:30 p.m. against conference rival Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif.