The men and women of Columbia tennis remained in New York City this weekend and squared off against some of the top talent from the East Coast. The men traveled to Flushing, N.Y. to play at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the site of the recently completed US Open. The women opened their fall season by hosting the Columbia Classic, which was held at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center.
The women started off the fall strongly and displayed encouraging individual efforts from all around. In the “A” draw of the singles, both Stephanie Zilberman and Shoko Okuda reached the semifinals, with Zilberman advancing all the way to the finals. The sophomore did not drop a set en route to the finals. In the final, she fought hard against Camille Jania of Harvard but fell in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2.
“Stephanie’s opponent was just really solid today,” said head coach Ilene Weintraub. “In order to beat her, you really have to break her down, and Stephanie did for the first set, but she just couldn’t keep it up.”
In the “B” singles draw, Lions’ senior Marlena Hall advanced to the final and faced off against Nakita Austin of St. John’s. Hall defeated Austin in three tight sets in 3-6, 7-6(7-1) 7-6 (7-5) to win the tournament.
“I thought Marlena played an awesome match, and she stayed mentally tough,” said Weintraub. “I think this was a match where her experience really carried her through. She struggled with a shoulder injury throughout the match, but she played great and really fought through it.”
The Lions also fared well in the doubles draw, where Zilberman and freshman Emilia Monell advanced to the final and defeated Columbia’s team of Nina Suda and Okuda 8-5 in the semifinals. In the finals, however, Zilberman and Monell suffered defeat 8-5 at the hands of a Harvard doubles team.
The men also fared well in Flushing, as nearly everyone on the team played matches, both singles and doubles. In total, eight Columbia players participated in the event, which featured seven draws of both singles and doubles. The draws were broken into different levels based on the quality of the players in each, and Columbia managed to hold its own against the 18 teams that participated.
“We did fair,” said head coach Bid Goswami. “We didn’t play very good doubles throughout the weekend. Bogdan Borta came in nursing an injury and lost in the first round, and that was a winnable match I thought.”
Two Lions were entered in the first flight, Borta and Jon Wong, and while Borta lost early, Wong played very well.
“Jon beat the Yale number-one player and then lost to Harvard’s number one in a very close match. The match went to a third set, and at 4-4 or 5-5, Jon had a few break points to take the lead, but ended up losing the set and the match 7-5,” said Goswami. “I think Jon is a player who likes to play with confidence, and I definitely think he got his swagger back this weekend.”
Mihai Nichifor made it to the semifinals of the second flight of singles, leaving Goswami pleased with the weekend’s results.
“I saw a lot of good things, including good play out of the freshmen. All of them played well,” said Goswami. “It’s a brand new year, and we got to play a lot of matches, which is what this time of year is all about.”
