The stage was set perfectly.
The No. 7 Stanford men’s tennis team, fresh off a victory over Cal to claim its first conference title in four years, headed to the Pac-10 Championships in Ojai, Calif. with big expectations.
Simply put, the Cardinal disappointed.
Most of that disappointment can be traced directly to USC’s Robert Farah, who is making a name for himself as a Stanford killer.
Farah, the eventual singles champion, defeated sophomore Ryan Thacher in the semifinals and sophomore Bradley Klahn in the finals. The loss was especially tough for Klahn, who won the tournament last year. It was the third time Klahn has lost to Farah this season.
While the Cardinal clearly is not happy with the results, the team is not letting what happened bother it too much.
“It was a good tournament to get matches in and see some future opponents, but we’re not as concerned with the result,” said junior Alex Clayton.
Six Stanford players were selected to play in the singles tournament – Klahn, Thacher, Clayton, freshman Denis Lin, junior Greg Hirshman and senior Richard Wire.
Lin and Hirshman both lost in the first round, to Amit Inbar of UCLA and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan of Washington, respectively. Wire won his first round match against Ravid Hazi of Arizona, but fell to UCLA’s Nick Meister in the Round of 16. Clayton cruised over Arizona’s Borja Malo in straight sets in the opening round, but lost to UCLA’s Matt Brooklyn in three sets the next round.
That left Thacher and Klahn.
Thacher, the tournament’s No. 3 seed, had three consecutive straight set victories to advance into the semis against Farah. Klahn, the tournament’s No. 2 seed, didn’t have quite as easy of a path, with two of his three victories taking three sets.
The semis were an all-Stanford and USC affair – Klahn faced the Trojans’ Daniel Nguyen, as Thacher took on Farah. Farah made quick work of Thacher, winning 6-4, 6-3, while Klahn took down Nguyen 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 to set up another Klahn-Farah match-up.
The first time the two faced off, USC was visiting Stanford. Due to a threat of rain, the teams played singles first. With the Cardinal leading 3-2 after five singles matches, Klahn had a chance to ice the match before doubles. In a back-and-forth match in which both players seemingly had it locked up, Klahn dropped a heartbreaker 7-6, 6-7, 7-5. USC then went on to win the doubles point to win the match.
The next matchup between Klahn and Farah, this time down in Los Angeles, was even more of a thriller. Farah won the first set 7-6 (5), but Klahn rebounded in the second set, winning 6-1. The decisive third set went to a tiebreaker, with Farah eking out a 7-6 (8) victory. Stanford lost 5-2.
“Every match we’ve played has been close,” Klahn said. “We have developed a pretty good rivalry in my two years at Stanford.”
In Ojai, it was more of the same. Farah got off to a fast start, claiming an easy 6-2 first set victory. In the second set, Klahn was unable to win the tiebreak, losing 7-6 (5) to give Farah the title.
“It would have been pretty unbelievable just to win it back-to-back years as a freshman and sophomore,” Klahn said. “I still have nothing to be ashamed of getting to the finals.”
On the doubles side, Stanford entered three teams – Klahn and Thacher, Wire and Clayton, and Lin and freshman Matt Kandath. Wire and Clayton lost in the first round and Lin and Kandath lost to Farah and Steve Johnson, who went on to win the tournament.
Klahn and Thacher, the tournament’s No. 2 ranked team, fell to Inbar and Meister in the semifinals.
One positive for Stanford that came out of Ojai was the play of Hirshman and freshman Walker Kehrer. The duo, which has only played two matches together all season, won the Invitational bracket in doubles.
Up next for Stanford is something it hasn’t had in a while – a break. The Cardinal will have two weeks off before the first round of the NCAA Tournament begins.
For now, the Cardinal is trying to take care of itself.
“We need to make sure we’re injury-free,” Clayton said. “We had three or four guys hurt last year in the tournament which was costly.”
Stanford is waiting to see if it will host the first round of the NCAA Tournament, which begins May 15.