Men's tennis retains core players, adds three freshmen

The defending Ivy League champion men’s tennis team will seek to maintain its rhythm and promote both individual and team success in the rankings in up to seven individual tournaments this fall. Led by head coach Bidyut Goswami, in his 28th season at Columbia, the team will have to recover from losing key contributor Bogdan Borta to graduation last spring. Borta played No. 1 or 2 singles for the Lions last season, going 0-5 at No. 1 singles and 9-4 at No. 2 singles. Seniors Jon Wong and Mihai Nichifor are tasked with filling Borta’s shoes this season. Nichifor, who transferred from Manhattan College last year, went 15-2 at No. 3 singles, including a perfect 7-0 in Ivy play. Wong led the Lions at No. 1 singles a season ago, going 10-5 at the top position.
“I have a good feeling for this team, because of the returning group. We only lost Bogdan,” Goswami said.

During last season’s run for the Ivy title, three freshmen stepped up for the Light Blue at No. 4, 5, and 6 singles. This year, the Lions have three new faces who they will count on to pick up the slack. The incoming freshman class is headed by Nathaniel Gery, an international student hailing from Ontario. In high school, Gery was a two-time Canadian national junior champion and winner of the Under-14s and Under-18s. He also achieved a world ranking of 190 as a junior.
“Nathaniel is what I thought he would be,” Goswami said. “I think he will get into the lineup and make a dent in the lineup.”

Cyril Bucher, another promising freshman, enters Columbia as a top-100 player from Switzerland and a Swiss national champion in 2003. Bucher played at the Club Lido in Lucerne as a junior.
John Yetimoglu, who rounds out the recruiting class, is a top-30 ranked junior in the United States Tennis Association 18s from Miami. Yetimoglu won state titles at No. 3 singles and No. 2 doubles in high school before graduating two years early in order to spend more time practicing tennis.
“I saw John reach the round of 16 at the Clay Court Nationals, and I think all three of them look pretty good,” Goswami said.

The Lions have a packed fall schedule this season beginning with the University of Virginia Fall Invitational in Charlottesville, Va.

Among the upperclassmen, last season, Nichifor defeated a ranked player from Virginia Tech on his way to winning the consolation bracket. The victory helped keep Nichifor in the rankings despite the fact that he played No. 3 singles for Columbia.

“The player that Mihai beat helped him keep his ranking,” Goswami said. “ And Mihai did well at No. 3 and the player he beat kept getting ranked higher so that helped.”

Nichifor was invited to the D’Novo/ITA Men’s All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla. this season, a tournament featuring the top 48 returning players in the nation. Wong will also compete in the qualifying draw for singles.

The Lions will have two doubles teams attempting to qualify for the All-American Championships, as Wong and sophomore Haig Schneiderman will team up along with Nichifor and Gery to compete for a spot in the main draw.

“We have two doubles teams this year,” Goswami said. “Last year we had one [Wong and Borta] in qualifying. I took a chance on Nathaniel because I thought his ITF junior ranking would do the trick, and it did.”

The Lions will be busy playing on six consecutive weekends, including in the Wilson/ITA Regional Championships at Dartmouth. Last fall, Columbia had one of the best regional tournaments in program history, sending five players to the round of 16, two to the semi-finals, and Borta to the finals where he lost a heartbreaker to Harvard’s Chris Clayton.

“It’s a hectic schedule, but I did it this way because our team is good and Jon and Mihai are two of the top players in the league,” Goswami said. “I wanted to give them a chance to do as well as possible. We will see how it is.”

The Lions open their fall slate at the Virginia Invitational on Friday, Sept. 11.