Tribe Opens Season at UVA Invite

Freshmen Sebastien Vidal and Ben Wirth won the opening two matches of their W&M careers on Sept. 14.

09/14/07 11:55PM

Williamsburg - The William and Mary men’s tennis team opened the 2007 fall season at the Virginia Fall Invitational on Friday, Sept. 14. Freshmen Ben Wirth and Sebastien Vidal each tallied a pair of wins on the opening day of their careers to advance to the semifinals of the Brown and Black Singles Brackets, respectively. Senior Alex Cojanu and sophomore Keziel Juneau turned in impressive showing by putting a scare into the two highest ranked players at the tournament.

Two rounds of singles were completed on the first day of the event, while the opening round of doubles was interrupted by inclement weather. The semifinals of each bracket will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday with the doubles slated to follow. The UVA Invite includes players from 27 schools, including 16 programs that finished last season ranked in the final ITA Top-75 Rankings. The singles brackets at the event include 19 nationally ranked players, while the doubles brackets have 10 ranked teams competing.

The Tribe’s top two singles players, Cojanu and Juneau, opened with victories in their respective brackets before dropping close matches in the top seeds in each bracket. In the Red Singles Bracket, Juneau opened the season with a straight-sets, 6-1, 6-4, win over Alex Birchmeier of Western Michigan. The reigning VaSID State Rookie of the Year put up quite a fight against reigning NCAA Singles Champion and preseason No. 1-ranked Somdev Devvarman of Virginia, before falling 6-4, 7-6 in the quarterfinals.

Cojanu, who garnered the No. 85 national ranking in the preseason, rallied from a set deficit to defeat Stetson’s Hicham Laalej, 3-6, 6-1, 7-5, in the opening round of the Blue Singles Bracket. In the quarterfinals, the Hallandale, Fla., native forced No. 12-ranked Adam Holmstrom of Denver to three sets. After dropping the first set, 6-2, Cojanu pulled even with a 6-4 win, before 2007 ITA All-American Holmstrom claimed the match with a 6-2 victory in the third set.

W&M rookies Vidal and Wirth were the lone Tribe players to run through Friday unbeaten in their respective brackets. Vidal defeated Leif Sunderland of Virginia, 6-4, 6-2, for his first collegiate victory, before upending Western Michigan’s Alejandro Saub, 6-4, 6-2, in the quarterfinals of the Black Singles Bracket. Vidal will meet Alexei Chijoff-Evans of Harvard at 9 a.m. at the Snyder Tennis Center.

Wirth defeated Chris Armes of Longwood, 6-1, 6-3, in the opening round of the Brown Singles Bracket. In his quarterfinal match against Medhi Benhammou of Radford, Wirth dropped the opening set in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (4). He rebounded to take a 5-4 lead in the second set, before Benhammou retired. Wirth will face Davidson’s Sam Burns at 9 a.m. at the Synder Tennis Center.

Senior Kavi Sud advanced to the quarterfinals of the Gray Singles Bracket before bowing out of the tournament. The Allentown, Pa., native led Mani Barajas Alexander of Longwood, 7-5, 5-1, before Barajas Alexander retired in the first round. Sud fell in the quarterfinals to Elon’s Kevin Beard, 6-1, 6-3.

After dropping his opening-round match in the White Singles Bracket, junior Dominic Pagon tallied his first victory of the season in the consolation bracket. The Kingston, Jamaica native won in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3, over James Madison’s Jesse Tarr. He will meet Penn’s Justin Fox at 10:30 a.m. at the Snyder Tennis Center on Saturday.

Junior Alex Zuck moved into the consolation semifinals of the Green Singles Bracket with a straight-sets, 6-3, 6-2, win over Alain Michel of Duke. In the opening round of the bracket, Zuck battled No. 2-seeded Paul Koenke of Boise State in a highly entertaining match. In a first set tiebreaker, Koenke outlasted Zuck, 7-6 (17-15), but the Tribe standout rebounded to force a third set with a 6-4 second-set win. Koenke moved on in the winners’ bracket, taking the third set, 6-1. Zuck will meet Brandon Lindsley of Longwood in the backdraw at 10:30 a.m. at Dells.

Like Pagon and Zuck, junior Marwan Ramadan dropped his opening match, but rebounded to claim his consolation bracket match. Ramadan defeated Brandon Ogara of Penn, 6-3, 7-6, to move into the consolation semifinals of the Orange Singles Bracket. He will meet Michael Hayes of Harvard in the next round. The contest is slated for a 10:15 a.m. start at Dells.

With the opening round of doubles washed out due to rain, the four tandem’s brackets will open competition on Saturday afternoon. Cojanu and Juneau, the second highest ranked team at the event at No. 11 nationally, are seeded No. 1 in the A-2 Doubles Bracket and will battled Capkovic and Vuckovic of Princeton at 1:15 p.m. at the Snyder Tennis Center.

W&M will have two teams in the B-1 and B-2 Doubles Brackets. The teams of Pandit and Pagon and Wirth and Ramadan will compete in the B-1 bracket. Pandit and Pagon will meet Burns and Noble of Davidson at 1 p.m., while Wirth and Ramadan will battle Harvard’s Nguyen and Evans at 2 p.m. Both matches will be played at the Snyder Tennis Center. In the B-2 Doubles bracket, Zuck and Wardell will square off with Althaus and Riabuchin of Denver beginning at 1 p.m. at the Snyder Tennis Center, while Vidal and Sud are slated to face Cox and Toole of Penn State at noon at Dells.

W&M Results from the UVA Fall Invitational
Red Singles
Keziel Juneau (W&M) def. Alex Birchmeier (W. Mich.) – 6-1, 6-4
#1 Somdev Devvarman (UVA) [1] def. Keziel Juneau (W&M) – 6-4, 7-6
Houston Barrick (UVA) def. Richard Wardell (W&M) – 6-4, 6-0
Mariusz Adamski (Wake Forest) def. Richard Wardell (W&M) – 6-3, 6-3

Blue Singles
Alex Cojanu (W&M) [85] def. Hicham Laalej (Stetson) – 3-6, 6-1, 7-5
#1 Adam Holmstrom (Denver) [12] def. Alex Cojanu (W&M) [85] - 6-2, 4-6, 6-2

White Singles
#1 Alexander Ermakov (Harvard) def. Dominic Pagon (W&M) - 6-4, 2-6, 6-3
Dominic Pagon (W&M) def. Jesse Tarr (JMU) – 6-2, 6-3

Green Singles
#2 Paul Koenke (Boise State) def. Alex Zuck (W&M) – 7-6 (15), 4-6, 6-1
Alex Zuck (W&M) def. Alain Michel (Duke) – 6-3, 6-2

Orange Singles
Bogdan Borta (Columbia) def. Marwan Ramadan (W&M) – 6-2, 6-4
Marwan Ramadan (W&M) vs. Brandon Ogara (Penn) – 6-3, 7-6

Black Singles
Sebastien Vidal (W&M) def. Leif Sunderland (UVA) – 6-4, 6-2
Sebastien Vidal (W&M) def. Alejandro Staub (W. Mich.) - 6-4, 6-2
Michael Calderone (W. Mich.) def. Varun Pandit (W&M)
Jonathan Wolff (Wake Forest) def. Varun Pandit (W&M) – 6-2, 6-2

Gray Singles
Kavi Sud (W&M) def. Mani Barajas Alexander (Longwood) – 7-5, 5-1, retire
Kevin Beard (Elon) def. Kavi Sud (W&M) – 6-1, 6-3

Brown Singles
Ben Wirth (W&M) def. Chris Armes (Longwood) -6-1, 6-3
Ben Wirth (W&M) def. Medhi Benhammou (Radford) – 6-7 (4), 5-4, retire