Tribe Trio Set for Davis Cup Competition

Rising junior Sebastien Vidal and former Tribe standouts Colin O’Brien and Dominic Pagon will compete from their countries in July.

06/26/09 3:05PM

Williamsburg - A trio of former and current William and Mary men’s tennis players are gearing up to compete in Davis Cup competition during the month of July. Rising junior Sebastien Vidal (Guatemala) and former Green and Gold standouts Colin O’Brien (Ireland) and Dominic Pagon (Jamaica) expect to see action in the second round of zone action in the Davis Cup, July 10-12, for their respective countries.

Vidal, who just finished his sophomore campaign and earned All-CAA honors in both single and doubles, will compete for Gua-temala against the Bahamas in the first round playoff of Group II in the Americas Zone. Guatemala opened Davis Cup competi-tion with a 5-0 setback against the Dominican Republic in March, but Vidal did not compete in the opening round as he was in the midst of the collegiate season. He did represent his country in both the 2007 and 2008 Davis Cups, posting a career singles ledger of 4-2 and a doubles mark of 2-1. He was Guatemala’s leading singles player last year, posting a 4-1 mark in qualifying.

The Guatemala City native posted a 22-10 overall singles mark, including a 16-6 dual match ledger, last season. He won 11 of his final 12 singles matches to close out the season and posted the top singles winning percentage on the team at 68.8 percent. He earned Second-Team All-CAA honors in singles and first-team all-league accolades in doubles. Overall, he was 23-15 in doubles competition in 2008-09, playing mainly at the No. 1 slot with rising senior Keziel Juneau.

O’Brien, who graduated from the College in 2007, will compete for Ireland in the second round of the Europe/Africa Zone Group II. In Ireland’s opening round, 4-1, win over Algeria, O’Brien contributed a pair of points with a victory in both singles and dou-bles. He teamed with James McGee to defeat Abdelhak Hameurlaine and Slimane Saoudi in a five-setter, 7-5, 3-6, 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-4, to claim the lone doubles match for Ireland. The former Green and Gold player also topped off the team victory with 6-4, 6-4 win over Ouassel Hared in the final singles match of the competition. With the victory, Ireland advanced to play Cyprus, July 10-12.

It marks the second straight year in which O’Brien has competed for the Irish Davis Cup team. He was a three-time All-CAA per-former and a two-time VaSID All-State choice at W&M. In 2007, he and Alex Cojanu became the first Tribe doubles team in six years to earn a spot in the NCAA Doubles Championship, where the pair advanced to the round of 16 before falling to the even-tual national championship team. On the professional circuit, O’Brien has been on the rise in the world rankings. In the most re-cent ranking released on June 22, he reached career-bests in the world doubles rankings at No. 485 and the world singles standings at No. 622.

Pagon, a recent W&M graduate, will compete for the Jamaican Davis Cup team for the second straight year as well. Last season, the Kingston native went 2-2 in singles competition. He did not take part in Jamaica’s 5-0 opening round loss to Mexico in March due to competing for the Tribe during the collegiate season. Jamaica will play the Netherlands Antilles in the first round playoff, July 10-12.

This past season, Pagon wrapped up his collegiate career, positing a 17-12 singles mark and a 19-11 doubles ledger for the Tribe. He earned Third-Team All-CAA accolades in both singles and doubles during his final campaign. One of the top doubles players in Tribe history, Pagon excelled in singles competition as well during his senior campaign, notching wins against No. 21 Wake Forest, No. 3 Georgia, No. 43 Fresno State and No. 56 MTSU.