Watch highlights from the final and Ashot Khacharyan disucss his tournament run
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Taking on the rest of the Northwest Region at the ITA Regionals in Palo Alto, Calif. over the past five days, Santa Clara junior Ashot Khacharyan led the charge for the Broncos, winning six times en route to reaching the singles final. Khacharyan fell in three sets to Stanford's Tom Fawcett, 6-3, 3-6, 1-6.
"My goal coming into the weekend was to win the tournament," said Khacharyan, a Sochi, Russia native. "I'm not very happy right now because I lost in the finals, but I am excited for the spring so I can show more good tennis.
"I feel like I played well in almost every match this weekend. I had some long, tough matches," continued Khacharyan. "I didn't play my best tennis in the finals, but overall good stuff this weekend."
"Ashot had a great tournament. We are all a little disppointed he couldn't get through, but this is a spring board for our team to use as postive momentuem headed into our dual meet season in January," said Bronco head coach Derek Mills. "When Ashot is focused and healthy, he can beat anybody in the country. This run validates that feeling and next time we get in this position, I know we can come out with the win."
In the singles final on a bright and sunny Tuesday morning pitted vs. Fawcett, Khacharyan came out shining, breaking his opponent's serve multiple times to take the first set 6-3.
In set number two, both competitors battled back and forth in a closely-contested set, characterized by lengthy rallies and never-ending resilience on the part of both players. Tied multiple times throughout the set, Fawcett eventually edged out Khacharyan to grab the final two points and take the second set, 6-4.
In the competition-deciding third and final set, Fawcett came out and grabbed the all-important first point on a service ace, going ahead 1-0. The Stanford freshman used his powerful serve to rattle off three more games to take a commanding 4-0 advantage. Khacharyan cut into the deficit by clinching the point in the fifth game but Fawcett closed the down on the Santa Clara junior's comeback attempt. Fawcett finished off the final two points to win the match 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Khacharyan's deep tournament run began on Friday when he arrived at the Stanford campus and starting dominating his early competition. Coming in as the No. 17 seed in his portion of the bracket, Khacharyan made quick work of Sacramento State's Kasparas Zemaitelis, a 6-foot-5-inch freshman, 6-4, 6-2 in the round of 128. Later that afternoon, Khacharyan routed the University of California, Berkeley's Wyatt Houghton 6-2, 6-1.
Building off his rising momentum from Friday, Khacharyan opened up Saturday with a 6-2, 6-2 drubbing of Stanford's Maciek Romanowicz, the No. 2 seed in Khacharyan's singles bracket. In his next match later that day, the Santa Clara junior stumbled for the first time and found himself in a hole after dropping the first set 6-4 against the University of Washington's Jake Douglas. Khacharyan regained his composure and came away with the impressive come-from-behind victory in three sets, finishing off the second and third sets with emphasis, 6-1, 6-2.
Sem Verbeek, a junior from the University of Pacific and the No. 5 seed in the singles competition, stood in the way of Khacharyan's quest to solidify a spot in the semi-finals. The two West Coast Conference competitors battled it out in their quarterfinal matchup on Sunday, splitting the first two sets. Khacharyan came away with a 6-2 victory in the first set but Verbeek rallied to take the second set 6-1. In the match-deciding third set, Khacharyan bested Verbeek 6-4, setting up a semi-final match with Gonzaga's Alvaro Nazal on Monday morning.
After a two and a half hour rain delay, Khacharyan opened the match playing motivated tennis in the semi-finals. The junior came out firing, downing Nazal 6-1 in the first set. Khacharyan kept his momentum rolling in set number two, eventually pulling away 6-3 to seal the match and clinch a berth in Tuesday morning's final.
Fellow Broncos, Sam Bertram and Ilya Osintsev were unable to muster up the same level of success as their teammate in their respective singles matches. Bertram came face-to-face with Cal's Jordan Smith in their round of 128 matchup. The native Australian fell behind early, dropping the first set 7-5. Bertram evened up the match with a 6-3 victory in the second set but dropped the tightly-contested decisive set 7-5.
Santa Clara's Ilya Osintsev also fell in his opening match to Fresno State's Euan McIntosh, 7-6(3), 6-3. The following day, Osintsev competed in a consolation match but withdrew due to injury.
Despite their struggles in singles, Bertram and Osintsev regrouped and came together to fight for two victories in doubles. Coming in as the No. 9 seed in their bracket, the Santa Clara seniors routed Eastern Washington's pairing 8-1 in the round of 64 matchup. In their next match, Osintsev and Bertram cruised past Washington's Mitch Stewart and Wendell Watanabe 8-2. However, the Broncos fell in their round of 16 matchup to WCC foes from the University of San Francisco, Nils Skajaa and Bernardo Saraiva, the No. 5 seed in the bracket.
Note: Santa Clara will wrap up its fall season when they return home to host the USTA Campus Showdown on the first day of November.
