Oregon senior Sven Swinnen’s run for an individual title at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships fell short Saturday in Ojai, Calif.
Swinnen, 24, lost in the semifinals to No. 2 Sam Warburg of Stanford in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4. Warburg is the defending Pac-10 singles champion.
Swinnen entered the semifinals on the heels of three consecutive match wins. The Switzerland native, ranked the No. 9 seed, defeated Arizona’s Jason Labrosse, California’s Lennart Maack and Arizona State’s Chris Biro — all in straight sets.
Oregon’s doubles tandem of Manuel Kost and Thomas Bieri also fell short in the semifinals for the doubles championship draw.
The duo could not overcome Washington’s No. 16 doubles team of Daniel Chu and Alex Slovic, falling 8-5. Kost and Bieri are fifth on Oregon’s all-time list in career doubles victories with 28.
“I felt these guys had impressive runs,” Oregon head coach Kevin Kowalik said. “Sven is playing some of the best tennis of his career and will be very dangerous in the postseason. Thomas and Manuel came into the tournament with nothing to lose and did a fantastic job reaching the semifinals and defeating two ranked opponents in the process.”
On the women’s side, senior Daria Panova attempted to win her fourth career Pac-10 singles title, but she couldn’t advance past the second round. Stanford’s Anne Yelsey was victorious over Panova in a close match that ended in two sets, 7-6, 6-3.
One of the few bright spots in the tournament for the Duck women was the doubles team of seniors Ester Bak and Davina Mendiburu. The duo won the Pac-10 invitational doubles draw when they triumphed over UCLA’s Tracy Lin and Elizabeth Lumpkin,
9-8(6). Bak and Mendiburu were the No. 1 seed in the draw and outlasted two opponents before reaching Sunday’s final.
— Alex Tam
In brief: Tennis faces defeat at Pac-10 Championships
Daily Emerald
April 24, 2005
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