Jan. 19, 2008
Santa Clara, Calif. - The No. 75 ranked Santa Clara men's tennis team hosted UC Santa Cruz and UC Davis Saturday at the Degheri Tennis Center. In the morning the Broncos defeated UC Santa Cruz 4-2 behind another strong performance from Jay Wong who clinched the doubles point with partner Steven Benvenuto at the No. 1 spot, and followed that with a singles victory at the No. 1 position. Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong and Senthil Chidambaram earned a doubles victory at the No. 2 position and each earned singles wins at the No. 3 and No. 4 spots, respectively.
In his first collegiate match, Chidambaram showed a lot of tenacity in his three set singles match verses Max Liberty-Point. After falling in the first set 4-6, Chidambaram came back to win his next two sets 7-6, 7-5.
"Senthil brought a lot of energy to his match," said Coach Derek Mills. "He was able to come back after being down in his first set, and showed us he had a lot of poise and presence on the court."
The Broncos fell 4-1 to UC Davis in the afternoon. The only win of the match was from Jay Wong, who defeated Michael Reiser 6-1, 6-4 at the No. 1 position.
"We went 1-1 today," said Mills. "I was impressed with the performances of the players and they all battled hard today. We will continue to practice hard and we are looking forward to our next match against USC."
The Broncos face No. 6 USC on January 26, at 1:30 p.m. in Los Angeles, Calif.
Santa Clara def. UC Santa Cruz 4-2
Doubles
No. 1 Jay Wong/Steven Benvenuto d. Jared Kamel/Mark Vartabedian 8-5
No. 2 Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong/Senthil Chidambaram d. Max Liberty-Point/Ilya Gendelman
No. 3 Max Ortiz/Colin Mark-Griffin d. Justin Wong/Charlie Burke 8-2
Singles
No. 1 Jay Wong d. Jared Kamel 6-2, 6-7, 6-3
No. 2 Steven Benvenuto vs. Max Ortiz DNF
No. 3 Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong d. Colin Mark-Griffin 6-2, 6-2
No. 4 Senthil Chidambaram d. Max Liberty-Point 4-6, 7-6, 7-5
No. 5 Silvio Chiba d. Charlie Burke 6-2, 6-1
No. 6 Mark Vartabedian d. Justin Wong 6-1, 6-0
UC Davis verses Santa Clara
Doubles
No. 1 Jay Wong/Steven Benvenuto vs. Daniel Elefant/Michael Reiser DNF
No. 2 Tyler Lee/Justin Garcia d. Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong/Senthil Chidambaram 8-5
No. 3 Henri Landes/Nick Lopez d. Justin Wong/Charlie Burke 8-2
Singles
No. 1 Jay Wong d. Michael Reiser 6-1, 6-4
No. 2 Henri Landes d. Steven Benvenuto 6-2, 6-4
No. 3 Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong vs. Justin Garcia 7-7, 5-2 DNF
No. 4 Senthil Chidambaram vs. Nick Lopez 6-7, 4-2 DNF
No. 5 Daniel Elefant d. Justin Wong 6-0, 6-2
No. 6 Tyler Lee d. Charlie Burke 6-0, 6-1