Baylor University Team Page
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – After two rounds of singles play at the Sherwood Country Club on Friday, the seventh-ranked Baylor men’s tennis team has four of its eight student-athletes still in contention for the Sherwood Collegiate Cup singles title.
In their first action of the spring season, seniors John Peers, Sergio Ramirez and Jordan Rux, plus sophomore Roberto Maytin each won two matches on day one of the competition to earn a spot in the event’s quarterfinal round on Saturday morning. With four quarterfinal participants, the Bears have half of the remaining undefeated players in the field, which also features players from No. 2 USC, No. 6 UCLA and No. 8 Stanford.
“Overall, I think it was a darn good day,” assistant coach Chris Brandi said. “Everybody did a good job with it being the first tournament back in the spring, so it was a good start to the spring season. The thing about this tournament that is great is that the competition is as hard as it can be for a college tournament. You get a ton of great matches in a short amount of time, so it is great practice.”
The 22nd-ranked and fourth-seeded Peers reached the quarterfinal round by dispatching of UCLA’s Evan Lee, 6-1, 6-0, and then stopping Stanford’s Denis Lin, 6-3, 7-5. The fifth-seeded Rux took care of Walker Kehrer of Stanford, 6-3, 6-1, and then had to rebound from an opening set loss to UCLA freshman Clay Thompson to take the match 1-6, 6-4, 6-1. Ramirez opened with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Holden Seguso of UCLA and then coasted past Michael Grant of USC, 6-4, 6-2. Maytin had arguably the most impressive day of any BU player as he followed a 6-0, 6-3 upset of UCLA’s 64th-ranked Maxime Tabatruong with another win over a ranked player in 94th-ranked Jaak Poldma of USC, 7-5, 2-6, 6-4.
“Roberto had a really good day,” Brandi said. “I would say honestly, he probably played the best he’s played since he has been at Baylor in spurts. He still needs to continue to improve on his focus, but in spurts he’s doing as good as we have seen him do and hopefully he will have a really good season for us.”
The quarterfinal round of singles action will begin Saturday at 1:30 p.m. (CST) with Peers facing 91st-ranked Raymond Sarmiento of USC and Rux playing No. 18 and third-seeded Daniel Nguyen of USC. Ramirez will square off against sixth-ranked and No. 1 seeded Steve Johnson and Maytin will look for another upset against Stanford’s 15th-ranked and second-seeded Bradley Klahn.
The other four Baylor players at the Sherwood Cup all dropped their opening round match, but three rebounded with a win in consolation play.
Junior Julian Bley fell to No. 91 Raymond Sarmiento of USC 6-2, 6-3 and then defeated Joel Giger of USC, 6-2, 6-2. Junior Kike Grangeiro fell to Daniel Kosakowski of UCLA, 6-1, 6-0, before recovering to beat Adrien Puget of UCLA, 6-7(5), 6-3 and 10-8. Freshman Robert Verzaal suffered a 6-3, 6-1 setback to the 18th-ranked Nguyen, but responded to post a 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 over UCLA’s Lee. Freshman Dennis Lengsfeld, in his first action for BU, dropped a 6-1, 6-4 decision to UCLA’s 86th-ranked Amit Inbar and then lost 6-4, 6-2 to JT Sundling of USC.
“It was great for our guys that lossed to bounce back,” Brandi said. “There are no easy matches here, so even if you lose the back draw is as good as some of the main draws of other college tournaments.”
In the consolation quarterfinals Bley will face Stanford’s Jamin Ball, Grangeiro plays USC’s 84th-ranked Peter Lucassen and Verzaal goes up against UCLA’s 64th-ranked Tabatruong.
On Saturday, the teams will start the morning by playing the first round of the 16-team doubles bracket at 12 p.m. (CST), before resuming action in the singles bracket with quarterfinal round matches. After the completion of that singles round, another round of doubles play is scheduled.
In the doubles bracket Baylor’s fourth-ranked duo of Maytin and Peers are listed as the No. 1 seed of the event. The duo will play Jeff Gast and Evan Lee of UCLA in first round action. Other first round matches for Baylor’s doubles teams include: Rux and Grangeiro vs. UCLA’s Seguso and Tabatruong, Bley and Lengsfeld vs. UCLA’s Inbar and Puget, and Ramirez and Verzaal vs. 16th-ranked and second-seeded Bradley Klahn and Ryan Thacher of Stanford.
A recap of Saturday’s action with complete results will be posted on BaylorBears.com at the conclusion of the day’s matches. Updated draws for the tournament are available online at BaylorBears.com.
Sherwood Collegiate Cup
Jan 14, 2011 at Thousand Oaks, Calif.
(Sherwood Country Club)
Singles competition
First Round:
r32 #22 John Peers (Baylor) def. Evan Lee (UCLA) 6-1, 6-0
r32 Jordan Rux (Baylor) def. Walker Kehrer (Stanford) 6-3, 6-1
r32 Roberto Maytin (Baylor) def. #64 Maxime Tabatruong (UCLA) 6-0, 6-3
r32 Sergio Ramirez (Baylor) def. Holden Seguso (UCLA) 6-2, 7-5
r32 Daniel Kosakowski (UCLA) def. Kike Grangeiro (Baylor) 6-1, 6-0
r32 #91 Raymond Sarmiento (USC) def. Julian Bley (Baylor) 6-2, 6-3
r32 #86 Amit Inbar (UCLA) def. Dennis Lengsfeld (Baylor) 6-1, 6-4
r32 #18 Daniel Nguyen (USC) def. Robert Verzaal (Baylor) 6-3, 6-1
Second Round
r16 #22 John Peers (Baylor) def. Denis Lin (Stanford) 6-3, 7-5
r16 Jordan Rux (Baylor) def. Clay Thompson (UCLA) 1-6, 6-4, 6-1
r16 Roberto Maytin (Baylor) def. #94 Jaak Poldma (USC) 7-5, 2-6, 6-4
r16 Sergio Ramirez (Baylor) def. Michael Grant (USC) 6-4, 6-2
Consolation Bracket:
cr1 Kike Grangeiro (Baylor) def. Adrien Puget (UCLA) 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 10-8
cr1 Julian Bley (Baylor) def. Joel Giger (USC) 6-2, 6-2
cr1 Robert Verzaal (Baylor) def. Evan Lee (UCLA) 6-1, 4-6, 6-4
cr1 JT Sundling (USC) def. Dennis Lengsfeld (Baylor) 6-4, 6-2
