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October 22, 2004 > Sports > Haerle leads tennis to regionals

Haerle leads tennis to regionals

By Matt McCabe | Thresher staff

After encouraging performances at two different tournaments last weekend, the men’s tennis team has high expectations as it enters its most important tournament to date of the season, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association South Central Region Tournament. The regional tournament, which begins today in Austin, features defending national champion Baylor University, as well as Texas A&M University and the University of Texas, who finished last season ranked 19th and 36th, respectively. The top two individual finishers at the tournament and the winning doubles team will earn invitations to the ITA National Indoor Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich. Nov. 4-7. ‘All of these matches [in the regional tournament] are important for [spring] preseason rankings,’ head coach Ron Smarr said. ‘Everybody’s in the same draw — it is a big tournament for everyone.’ With junior Robert Searle still sidelined from arthroscopic knee surgery, junior Tony Haerle will be the Owls’ top player at regionals, but assistant coach Efe Ustundag (Baker ‘99) said he has high expectations for freshman Hoony Shin and junior Rodrigo Gabriel. ‘I am expecting good things from Tony [Haerle]; I really expect that he can win it all,’ Ustundag said. ‘I think Hoony and Rodrigo are the other two players who are taking something into this tournament and can do some damage.’ After playing at the fourth position for the majority of his two years at Rice, this weekend’s regional tournament gives Haerle an opportunity to gain national prominence. ‘I am ready for the tournament,’ Haerle said. ‘I definitely have the goal to get far in the tournament, and even to have a chance to win.’ Searle, who is ranked 11th nationally, originally expected to return for regionals, but current plans call for him to make the ITA National Indoor Championships Nov. 4-7 his first tournament back. ‘We want him to be 100 percent when he goes out there, capable of winning the tournament, instead of just having a tournament to play,’ Ustundag said. ‘I don’t want him to compete at 80 percent.’ Searle may not even have an opportunity to play at nationals though, because he did not play in the ITA All-American Championships and will not play at the regional tournament this weekend. If healthy, Searle will need a wild card on the basis of his national ranking to play in the tournament. Smarr said he expects Searle to receive a wild card if he is healthy. The team split up last weekend, with sophomore Jason Mok, senior Take Morita, Gabriel and Shin going to the South Carolina Fall Invitational in Columbia, S.C. and sophomore Ben Harknett and Haerle playing at the prestigious Midland Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational in Midland, Texas. ‘It is one of the better tournaments in the country,’ Ustundag said. ‘The tournament invites two or three players from schools all around the country — some of the premier schools in the country come to play. It was a very good tournament right before regionals for our top guys.’ Haerle, seeded eighth at the tournament, advanced to the quarterfinals on the strength of a pair of comeback wins, but succumbed to the tournament’s top seed, 24th-ranked Luben Pampoulov of UCLA in three sets. After facing a set point earlier in the match, Pampoulov rallied to defeat Haerle 6-4 in the third set. ‘It was good to play that caliber of player,’ Haerle said. ‘In the past, I have not gotten to play that type of player.’ Two Owls returned from the South Carolina Fall Invitational as champions. Shin teamed with Gabriel to take the doubles title in the B-1 flight, and Shin won the individual title in the B-1 flight with five consecutive victories. Shin did not drop a set in advancing to the tournament final, including a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Furman University’s Kevin Lackey in Saturday’s semifinal. In the championship match, Shin defeated South Carolina State University’s Parantap Chaturvedi in three sets, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 to take the B-1 flight title. ‘I went to the tournament to just to do my best and see what happens; I didn’t expect to win,’ Shin said. ‘I have high hopes after this tournament. For the first time since I came to Rice, I feel really good about my game.’ Shin and partner Gabriel fell behind 7-4 in the B-1 doubles final but saved seven match points and rallied to eventually win their match against Charleston Southern University’s Murat Atilla and Kultwano Lephuthing 9-7. ‘They had seven match points against them, down 7-4, and they came back,’ Smarr said. ‘I don’t care who you are playing, if you are down seven match points and come back, you hung in there mentally.’ Morita and Gabriel both came away from the tournament with 1-1 records in singles. Mok lost in three sets in the tournament’s opening round to the eventual winner of the A-1 bracket, Benjamin Carlotti of the University of North Carolina. Mok also combined with Morita to defeat Campbell University’s Jiri Beranek and Ryan Mills 9-7 before losing to the tournament’s top seed, UNC’s Geoff Boyd and Brad Pomeroy, 8-4. ‘I think everybody has improved a little bit,’ Smarr said. ‘Overall it’s been a good fall — we have been having success at every tournament.’

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