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September 28, 2007 > Sports > Men’s tennis displays doubles prowess

Men’s tennis displays doubles prowess

By Casey Michel | Thresher Editorial Staff

While the men’s tennis team does not have an official slogan, it might as well be, “Two heads are better than one.” Although singles play has not gone according to plan, Rice’s doubles teams, namely the pairing of senior Ralph Knupfer and junior Christoph Mueller, have blazed through competition lately, advancing to the A Draw final in last weekend’s HEB Baylor Invitational in Waco, Texas.

The Owls now travel to Tulsa, Okla. to try their hand in the ITA All-American Championship, which begins today. While all the players will have a shot at making the actual tournament, only Knupfer and Mueller, who are ranked 81st and 86th in the country, respectively, will be automatically placed in the Qualifying round. They will need to win three rounds in order to make it to the 64-player main draw. They will also compete as a doubles pair.

Assistant coach Efe Ustundag (Baker ‘99) said Knupfer and Mueller will face tough competition, but they are more than capable of advancing deep into the tournament.

“It’s definitely not going to be easy,” Ustundag said. “[Knupfer and Mueller] have the physical abilities needed to certainly qualify — what is going to get them to the main draw is fighting hard every point of every match, and not taking any point off.”

In their first road action of the year, the Owls continued their singles woes last Friday. All of the Owls in the A Singles Draw lost their opening matches in three sets. In consolation, No. 12 seed Knupfer fell to Texas A&M’s Brad Williams 6-4, 7-6 (4) to get ousted. The consolations draw would not help the other Owls either, as all three dropped in straight sets.

Freshman Vishnu Rajam was the only Owl in the B Singles Draw, but he fared the same as his teammates in the A Singles Draw, losing in both the opening and consolation rounds.

But the Owls came back strong in doubles behind the fourth-seeded tandem of Knupfer and Mueller. The Owl pairing blew by the University of Louisiana-Lafayette’s Piotr Banas and Janusz Conradi, winning 8-4 in the first round. They then downed Baylor University’s Matt Brown and Denes Lukacs in the second round, holding on for an 8-6 victory.

The next day, Rajam and senior Filip Zivojinovic found themselves in the quarterfinals of the B Doubles Draw, albeit without playing a single set — the pair advanced due to an opening round bye and an injury to their opponents in the second round.

But this lack of action did not faze the Rice pair, as they notched a commanding 8-4 win against Francisco Segura and Diego Trojano of the Texas A&M University-Laredo. In the final, Zivojinovic and Rajam faced Alejandro De Mucha and Stefan McKinney of New Mexico State in the finals. Trading points, the Owl duo eventually ran out of steam, dropping the 8-5 decision.

Ustundag said he was worried about the team relaxing with a big lead.

“We got some great leads, 7-2, 7-3, but we always let somebody through the door,” he said. “I’d like to be able to dominate and make a statement. All you need at this level is that crack in the window.”

Knupfer and Mueller continued their dominant play, opening Saturday against the Texas A&M University pair of Conor Pollack and Chris Chirico. The Aggies pushed the Owls, but Knupfer and Mueller were able to earn the tough 8-6 win. In the A Singles Draw semi-finals, the duo continued to step up their game against Bram Ten Berge and Matthias Wellerman of the University of Mississippi, riding their momentum to an 8-5 victory.

On the final day of action, Knupfer and Mueller squared off with No. 2 seed Jonas Berg and Erling Tveit of the Ole Miss in the A Singles Draw finals. The Owls started slowly, and, though they made a late run, ended up losing 8-3.

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