Columbia men’s tennis team opens Ivy League play with road win over Cornell

The defending Ivy League champion men’s tennis team won its first match of its 2010 Ivy schedule this weekend, defeating Cornell 6-1 in Ithaca on Saturday. The Lions, now ranked No. 74 in the nation, had also defeated Cornell a few weeks earlier at the Eastern Conference Athletic Championships, but just like that match, this weekend’s contest proved to be hotly contested, despite the lopsided 6-1 score.

“I was a little worried about this match, because we just played two weeks ago and it was a really close match. It was 5-2, but if you look at the results it was very close, and now it was at their place,” head coach Bid Goswami said. “I was a little nervous, but I thought we had the talent to do well.”

In the ECACs, the Lions got off to a slow start, as they dropped the doubles point to the Big Red. On Saturday, the Lions again lost the doubles point, but this time just a few points separated the two teams. At No. 1 doubles, senior co-captains Jon Wong and Mihai Nichifor were locked in a close battle against Andy Gauthier and Jeremy Feldman. Despite never losing a serve the entire match, Wong and Nichifor lost the No. 1 doubles match in a tiebreak. At No. 2 doubles, sophomore Haig Schneiderman and freshman Nate Gery lost another tight match 8-6, giving Cornell the doubles point. At No. 3 doubles, sophomore Rajeev Deb-Sen and junior Kevin Kung were locked in a tight battle in the tiebreak when the doubles point was decided, and ultimately ended up losing the tiebreak as well, giving Cornell a sweep of the doubles point.

“The doubles was spectacular. Even though we played good doubles, sometimes on an away court you miss one or two shots, and that’s what happened in the two tiebreaks,” Goswami said. “I thought Nate and Haig played really well—they had a lot of break points in their match, also.”

The Lions regrouped quickly in singles play, with freshman Cyril Bucher leading the way. Bucher, from Switzerland, lost in the Lions’ previous match to Cornell, but came out as a different player this time. Bucher routed his opponent Mirza Klis 6-1, 6-1, tying the match at 1-1.

“They were so jacked when they won the doubles point. Good thing for us that Cyril came out and just started hitting winners. I’ve never seen Cyril do that,” Goswami said. “This was the same guy that Rajeev beat 7-5 in the third last time. And you know, even though we fought so hard in the doubles point, Cyril wins and it’s 1-1.”

Next off the court was Jon Wong at No. 1 singles, who avenged a three-set loss to Jon Jaklitsch last season with a 6-4, 7-6 straight-sets win. At No. 6 singles, Gery won a close first set in a tiebreak and continued his solid play in the second, winning that 6-4 and giving Columbia a 3-1 lead. At No. 5 singles, Deb-Sen was locked in a dogfight against Jonathan Fife. Deb-Sen lost the first set in a tiebreak, despite saving nine set points, and held two set points of his own to take the set.

Nichifor, at No. 2 singles, also dropped his first set, but rebounded to win the second set 6-4. Nichifor jumped out to an early break in the second, but was broken back and twice forced to serve to stay in the match. Holding each time, Nichifor forced a tiebreak, which he won 7-4, giving Columbia an insurmountable 4-1 lead.

Schneiderman, at No. 3 singles, split his first two sets in tiebreaks, winning the first and losing the second.

“It was a sigh of relief after we were up 4-1,” Goswami said.

Since the outcome of the overall competition was already decided, Schneiderman and Feldman played a super tiebreak to decide the outcome of their match, which Schneiderman won 10-4. Deb-Sen responded by taking his second set 6-2, and winning a third-set super tiebreak 12-10.

“I thought Haig played really, really well. I mean, I watched the super tiebreak, and I thought I was watching the U.S. Open,” Goswami said. “He was playing like [Roger] Federer. He was serving big and he came in to volley—I just said, man, I’m happy he’s playing for us for another two years. For a long stretch, I’ve never seen Haig play better.

“I think we were very focused and determined,” Goswami added. “It bodes well for us to win 11 out of 12 singles matches against Cornell in the two matches.”

The Lions will next be in action during spring break, when they take their annual training trip to Texas. Their next Ivy match will be against No. 53 Harvard on April 2.