Fans and players had high expectations for the Oregon men’s tennis team at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regionals held this weekend at the University Student Tennis Center.
However, the team of seven Ducks missed their goal of winning the singles main draw.
The first day of competition saw four Ducks advance to the second round. Juniors Manuel Kost and Sven Swinnen, along with sophomores Thomas Bieri and Arron Spencer, all won their first matches, but none of them could sustain that winning level through the last day of the tournament.
Head coach Chris Russell was encouraged by his team’s play and saw the development of his fairly young squad.
“Overall, our guys did a very good job,” Russell said. “There’s still things we want to keep working on. After each tournament, we want more guys developing more of a belief in their respective game style.”
Kost, seeded third in the tournament, had high expectations for himself. He won his first two round match-ups against Stanford’s Chris Rasmussen and John Pettit of California, respectively.
In the round of 16, Kost’s goal was stopped short in straight sets, 6-3 and 6-2, by Washington’s Christopher Palmanshofer.
“(Kost) played a guy with a hot hand,” Russell said. “But I think he knows, and I know that he didn’t play his best tennis.”
The best chances at winning the singles main draw came from the two Switzerland natives, Swinnen and Bieri. Both advanced into the quarterfinal round yesterday, but neither could conjure up a victory to move into the final four.
Swinnen, ranked No. 9 in the tournament, took care of St. Mary’s Tim Welty and Phil Sheng of Stanford in straight sets in the first two rounds. The third round saw the junior beat California’s Balazs Veress, 6-2, 6-2. Veress, seeded No. 4 this weekend and ranked 81st in the nation, was one of the favorites to win the singles main draw.
However, Swinnen was stopped short by sixth-seeded Alex Slovic of Washington in a highly competitive match that ended 7-5, 7-6.
“I lost a pretty close match,” Swinnen said. “I played pretty good actually, but it was just too bad that I lost.”
It was the second-year Bieri who impressed many, however, including his teammates and coaches over the weekend. The third Swiss native on the team lost in the quarterfinals to the 25th ranked player in the nation and No. 1 seed, Conor Niland of California, in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2.
“It was a breakthrough day (when) we had Sven and Thomas step up to new levels,” Russell said.
On the doubles side, two Oregon teams — Spencer and Swinnen, Bieri and Kost — advanced into the quarterfinals after winning their first two round matches.
The Ducks have not seen this type of success from two players and two teams in the same tournament for a while.
“(The tournament) reinforces what our guys have been working on,” Russell said. “These kind of opportunities are what we want to capitalize on when playing in a tournament like this at home.”
The doubles finals will be held today at noon at the Student Tennis Center.