Men's Tennis Sends Pair to Indoor Nationals

It was sweet success for Justin Chow and Bogdan Borta at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional tournament, as the two teamed up to win the doubles title against Ryan Gormley and Brendan Lynch of Penn State, 8-1, securing a berth in the National Indoor Tournament next weekend.

The victory came as a surprise to Chow. “Going out there, we didn’t have much expectation. Bogdan and I have only been playing for about three weeks. This is something that doesn’t happen very often,” he said.

Chow and Borta had been on the brink of elimination in the quarterfinals of the tournament. “In the quarterfinal match we were down, match-point,” Chow said. “We came back from 7-2 and won 9-8. We survived death, and we thought there was nothing else that could stop us.”

Columbia’s tactics were aggressive. Chow and Borta both used forehands—typically an offensive shot—for their returns. Chow, a righty, played on the deuce side of the court, and Borta, a lefty, was on the ad side.

On service, both Chow and Borta rushed the net, putting pressure on the returning team. They hit most of their volleys down the middle to cut off their opponents’ angles and force them into difficult shots.

In longer rallies, Borta hit heavy ground strokes from the baseline to open up the court, and Chow crowded the net to smash weak returns.
Chow mercilessly targeted opposing net players. “We hit a couple of guys this weekend,” he said. “Got a couple of pegs in there, which is nice. We’re not going to let them off the hook. We just go right at them.”
Chow and Borta will compete in Indoor Nationals next weekend, Nov. 1-4, in Columbus, Ohio.

On the women’s side, Lauren Shearer and Stephanie Zilberman won a doubles match to qualify for the main draw of the ITA Regional tournament, but lost their first-round match to Ellenoira Featherston and Dominique Liguori of Fordham, 8-4.

Sydney Murray, the only Columbia player to compete in singles, lost her first-round match to Meg Zebroski of Dartmouth, 6-3, 6-2.