At the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships held at the University of Michigan's Varsity Tennis Center, Hong Kong's Brian Hung and team mate Ryan Heller, went toe-to-toe with the No. 1 ranked NCAA men's doubles tandem, and the tournament's second seeds, Sam Warburg and KC Corkery, before the highly regarded pair from Stanford showed their mettle by coming up with key points late in the match to win their semifinal showdown, 8-6.
Although Brian and his team mate were denied the chance to play for a national title, it was nevertheless Michigan's first semifinal appearance in the men's tournament since 1979.
To demonstrate how tight the match was, the first ten games of the semifinal all went with serves until the eleventh game when Warburg and Corkery finally broke through, at the expense of Brian's service game, to take a critical 6-5 lead. With the defending NCAA champions serving for the match at 7-6 after either side had held their next serves, the Michigan pair still battled on gamely and actually had a break point opportunity. But with Brian having to dive towards the middle to cover a wicked drill by Stanford, Warburg, who at 19 had already won a singles and doubles title on the tough USA Futures circuit, not to mention commanding an ATP ranking of No.694, came up with the goods when it mattered most as he nailed a blinding down the line pass that gave the Michigan pair no chance. The No. 2 seeds eventually held for 8-6 to secure their place in the finals.
Warburg and Corkery, however, fell at the final hurdle as they were beaten by top seeds, Scott Green and Ross Wilson of Ohio State, 8-5 in the final. They are the first duo since 1992-93 to win the ITA All-American and National Indoor titles in the same season.
Michigan Head Coach, Bruce Berque, was not overly disappointed as he felt his team was still able to take away many positives from the match and tournament as a whole. At high level tennis, the difference of one or two points here and there are often enough to decide the outcome of a match.
"Overall, I thought it was a good result. It was also good for the other guys on our team to see. They could tell both the importance of one or two points in a match and the fact that some of the things we've been working on in practice are really working," was Berque's post-match assessment.
Brian admitted recent results have been encouraging but it's no time to rest on your laurels. "It's given us a big boost. After the match, coach came up and talked to us and told us that this is what we should expect. That we should believe we're able to compete with these guys, not only when we're playing exceptionally well, but even when we play our average game. For the dual season, I think we'll be able to win more doubles matches based on this," said Brian when talking to mgoblue.com afterwards.
He continued: "I know there are still a lot of areas that need improvement. My serve has to get a lot bigger, both for singles and doubles. I need to improve just about every single stroke in my game if I want to be one of the best players in college. Before, I was thinking about just being able to compete against really good players. But now, my goal is to beat these guys."
Notable former finalists at the ITA National Indoor Championships included Brad Gilbert of Pepperdine (singles finalist, 1982); Ken Flach and Robert Seguso of SIU-Edwardsville (doubles finalists, 1983); Paul Annacone of Tennessee (singles champion & doubles finalists, 1984); Mikael Pernfors of Georgia (singles finalist, 1985); Luke Jensen of USC (singles & doubles champion, 1987); MaliVai Washington of Michigan (singles champion, 1989); Todd Martin of Northwestern (singles champion, 1990); plus Hong Kong's very own, Sven Koehler of Duke (doubles finalist, 1997).
First held in 1978 for the men and 1984 for the women, the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships is the second of three national championships during the 2004-05 collegiate tennis season, with the other two being the ITA All-American Championships and the NCAA Championships. Current touring pros James Blake (Harvard), Laura Granville (Stanford), Marissa Irvin (Stanford), Jeff Morrison (Florida), Lisa Raymond (Florida), not to mention the now-retired Todd Martin (Northwestern), were all one-time or another, prominent participants of the prestigious ITA National Indoors.
Meanwhile, Brian's conqueror in the Regional Singles Final, Illinois' Ryler DeHeart, upset third-seeded Jesse Witten of Kentucky 6-1, 6-4 to take the coveted men's title. Unseeded and ranked No. 95 in the ITA national singles rankings, he is only the second unseeded player in the past decade to win the National Indoors title.
DeHeart also accounted for Brian's opening round singles conqueror here at the Indoors, 5-8th seed Izak van Der Merwe of Old Dominion University in the semifinals, while Witten defeated No. 2 seed Sam Warburg in the other semis.
Results
ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships
Varsity Tennis Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan
November 4-7, 2004
Men's Doubles - Semifinals
(2)KC Corkery/Sam Warburg (Stanford) d. (WC)Brian Hung/Ryan Heller (Michigan) 8-6
Photo courtesy of mgoblue gallery
Source:
www.itatennis.com
www.mgoblue.com
www.collegetennisonline.com