April 26, 2008

OJAI, CALIF. - USC's Robert Farah and Kaes Van't Hof will be seeing a lot of each other on Sunday. The Trojans will begin their day at the Pac-10 Men's Tennis Championships on opposite sides of the net, as they square off in the Pac-10 singles championship match at 11 a.m. in Ojai, Calif. By day's end USC is guaranteed to have a its fourth Pac-10 singles champion in program history and first since Ryan Moore won the title in 2001. Following their singles showdown, the Trojans will team back up in the Pac-10 doubles final, where top-seeded Farah/Van't Hof face No. 2 seed Bellama/Brooklyn of ASU.

This is the first time in USC history that the Trojans have had players in both the Pac-10 singles and doubles championship matches in Ojai. USC has had three other Pac-10 singles champions, and has claimed five Pac-10 doubles titles. The last USC doubles team to win the crown was Parker Collins/Daniel Langre in 2003.

Saturday's action was highlighted by an all-Trojan semifinal round in singles play. Sophomore Robert Farah came up against freshman teammate Jaak Poldma in one semi, with top-seeded Farah claiming a 6-2, 6-4 win over Poldma to work his way into Sunday's title match. Meanwhile, second-seeded Kaes Van't Hof was engaged in an all-out battle with sophomore teammate Gary Sacks in the other semifinal. Sacks grabbed the first set, but Van't Hof answered back by taking the second. The third set see-sawed into a tiebreaker, where Van't Hof was able to close things out with a hard-fought 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (2) win to earn the senior captain's first appearance in the Pac-10 singles championship match.

Later in the day, Farah and Van't Hof regrouped and took to the doubles courts for another semifinal stint. The top-seeded Trojan pair faced fourth-seeded Chizever/Zerbini of Cal and took down the Bears duo with an 8-4 win to move on to tomorrow's title match against ASU's No. 2 seed Bellama/Brooklyn.

For full results, see below, or visit www.ojaitourney.org.

Pac-10 Singles Championship Matches
(1) Robert Farah
First round: def. Peter Zimmer (ARIZ) - 6-3, 6-4
Round of 16: def. Michael Look (UCLA) - 6-4, 3-6, 6-2
Quarterfinals: def. Pedro Zerbini (CAL) - 6-1, 4-6, 6-2
Semifinals: def. Jaak Poldma (USC) - 6-2, 6-4
Championship: vs. (2) Kaes Van't Hof (USC) - 11 a.m. Sunday

Jaak Poldma
First round: def. Pierre Mouillon (CAL) - 6-3, 6-1
Round of 16: def. (4) Claudio Christen (ARIZ) - 6-3, 6-4
Quarterfinals: def. (5) Mathieu Dehaine (UCLA) - 5-7, 6-1, 6-2
Semifinals: lost to (1) Robert Farah (USC) - 6-2, 6-4

Gary Sacks
First round: def. Jonathan Dahan (CAL) - 6-3, 6-3
Round of 16: def. Francisco Gallardo (ORE) - 7-6 (7), 6-4
Quarterfinals: def. Nicolas Meister (UCLA) - 6-3, 7-6 (6)
Semifinals: lost to (2) Kaes Van't Hof (USC) - 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (2)

(2) Kaes Van't Hof
First round: def. Geoff Embry (ORE) - 7-6, 6-4
Round of 16: def. Juan Carlos Rebaza (ASU) - 6-4, 6-3
Quarterfinals: def. Jeremy Drean (UCLA) - 7-6 (5), 6-4
Semifinals: def. Gary Sacks (USC) - 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (2)
Championship: vs. (1) Robert Farah (USC) - 11 a.m. Sunday

Pac-10 Singles Invitational Matches
(1) Abdullah Magdas
First round: def. Patrick Brogan (ASU) - 6-2, 6-1
Round of 16: def. Mikael Myrhed (ORE) - 6-3, 6-1
Quarterfinals: lost to David Chu (WASH) - 4-6, 7-6 (1), 1-1 def.

Jack Levis
First round: def. Nicolai Horgen (CAL) - 5-7, 6-2, 6-4
Round of 16: lost to David Chu (WASH) - 6-4, 6-4

Daniel Gliner
First round: def. Ravid Hazi (ARIZ) - 6-3, 6-3
Round of 16: def. Jeffrey Zeller (STAN) - 7-5, 6-3
Quarterfinals: lost to (4) Wes Miller (ASU) - 5-7, 6-1, 6-2

(3) Jason McNaughton
First round: lost to Tobi Obenaus (WASH) - 6-2, 7-6 (11)

Andrew Piotrowski
First round: def. John Nanosky (ASU) - 7-6 (3), 6-2
Round of 16: def. Ahmed Ismail (UCLA) - 4-6, 6-2, 6-2
Quarterfinals: lost to Bozhidar Katsarov (CAL) - 3-6, 7-6, 7-6

Pac-10 Doubles Championship Matches
(1) Farah/Van't Hof
Round of 16: def. Hirschman/Wire (STAN) - 8-1
Quarterfinals: def. Hazi/Metham (ARIZ) - 8-4
Semifinals: def. (4) Chizever/Zerbini (CAL) - 8-4
Championship: vs. (2) Bellama/Brooklyn (ASU) - 2 p.m. Sunday

Poldma/Piotrowski
Round of 16: lost to (3) Meister/Srugo (UCLA) - 8-3

Pac-10 Doubles Invitational Matches
Gliner/Magdas
Round of 16: def. Gilbert/Horgen (CAL) - 9-7
Quarterfinals: def. (2) Miller/Nanosky (ASU) - w/o (admin)
Semifinals: def. (4) Kildahl/Obenaus (WASH) - 8-5
Championship: vs. (3) Dahan/Katsarov - 12:30 p.m. Sunday