Wednesday, 10/24/2012

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The Columbia men's tennis doubles team of Ashok Narayana and Max Schnur captured the 2012 ITA Northeast Regional Doubles Championship Tuesday in New Haven, Conn.

Going up against Princeton's Matija Pecotic and Zack McCourt, Schnur and Narayana played a particularly strong match to secure the doubles titles by a score of 8-4.

"Max and Ashok are absolutely the best doubles pair in the northeast right now," said Bid Goswami, The Columbia Tennis Alumni and Friends Head Coach of Men's Tennis after the match. "After a great showing at the All-American where they beat the No. 6 team in the country, their confidence is very high. They won the tournament, playing five matches against tough opponents, without ever dropping their serves."

With the victory, Schnur and Narayana have earned a spot in the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships to be played at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center Nov. 8-11. The event, hosted by Columbia, features collegiate players from all levels, comprising a 32-player singles draw and 20-team doubles draw.

Columbia's Winston Lin was also in action in the singles final, but lost a tough three-set match to Pecotic.

"Winston played great tournament, beating Yale's No. 1 and St John's No. 1 who is ranked No. 38 in the ITA rankings," said Goswami. "He lost a great finals to Pecotic of Princeton, who is himself having a fall to remember reaching the semis of the All-American.  Winston played a great third set and he is improving every day and it bodes very well for Columbia tennis."

Recapping the entire ITA Northeast Regional Championships, Goswami had this to say. "All of our six singles players and three doubles teams played very well. Freshman Dragos Ignat had two great matches, including his second and third round matches that he won over Cornell's and Penn's respective No. 1's.