Duck men, women head to Pac-10 Tournament
Oregon’s Daria Panova will try to continue her dominance over the Pacific-10 Conference as she and the rest of the Oregon tennis teams compete in the Pacific-10 Men’s and Women’s Individual Tennis Championships starting today in Ojai, Calif.
Panova, ranked 10th in the nation, will be going for her fourth Pac-10 individual title. The junior from Moscow won the 2003 and 2004 indoor Pac-10 championships, along with last year’s outdoor championship.
“Daria has that expectation on herself to win anytime she is in a tournament,” Oregon head coach Nils Schyllander said.
Panova will face 99th-ranked Joslynn Burkett of Arizona State today. Panova beat Burkett earlier this season in three sets, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Other competitors in the singles tournament for Oregon will be 69th-ranked Dominika Dieskova and senior Courtney Nagle.
On the men’s side, Oregon junior Sven Swinnen has moved up 18 spots in the rankings to No. 17, the highest an Oregon men’s player has been ranked in the program’s 66-year history.
Swinnen, along with No. 71 Manuel Kost, Thomas Bieri and Markus Schiller, will participate this weekend.
“Swinnen and Manuel have beaten top-ranked people this year, so I think they have a good chance to go far,” head coach Chris Russell said. “Thomas and Markus play a big style of tennis and if they’re on, they can beat anyone.”
In today’s first-round action, Swinnen will face Arizona’s Colin O’Grady, Kost will match-up against Arizona’s Whi Kim, Bieri will take on No. 79 Jasmil Al-Agba of Southern California and Schiller will play against 11th-ranked Sam Warburg of Stanford.

— Clayton Jones