{"id":143829,"date":"2010-01-06T02:58:29","date_gmt":"2010-01-06T07:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stanforddaily.com\/cgi-bin\/?p=1036718"},"modified":"2010-01-06T02:58:29","modified_gmt":"2010-01-06T07:58:29","slug":"men%e2%80%99s-tennis-set-to-build-on-2009-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/143829","title":{"rendered":"Men\u2019s tennis set to build on 2009 success"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sophomore<\/p>\n

Sophomore Bradley Klahn will be an instrumental part of the 2010 men\u2019s tennis team, likely playing singles and number one doubles. Klahn and the Card have high hopes for this year after losing in the Round of 16 in last year\u2019s NCAA Tournament. (Stanford Daily File Photo)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

You hear stories of the Stanford men\u2019s tennis team traveling to Hawaii over Thanksgiving break and you invariably become jealous.<\/p>\n

You see tennis players wearing their free Nike shorts, shirts, sweats and shoes and you say to yourself, damn, I wish I were on the team.<\/p>\n

You watch the team steamroll over opponents in the Taube Tennis Center, arguably the premiere collegiate stadium in the nation and become even more envious.<\/p>\n

Then you sit in class and overhear a player discussing the twice-weekly 7:00 a.m. workouts and you forget why you ever wanted to play on the team.<\/p>\n

That is the life of a Stanford men\u2019s tennis player.<\/p>\n

The Cardinal, returning its top four players, enters the 2010 season with lofty expectations. Last season, Stanford had its national title dream dashed by a loss to USC in the Round of 16 at the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n

This season, Stanford does not plan on changing much. Sophomores Bradley Klahn and Ryan Thacher, junior Alex Clayton and senior Richard Wire, the team\u2019s top ranked players, lead the charge for the Cardinal\u2019s 19th national championship.<\/p>\n

Four new freshmen will also enter the fray: Matt Kandath, Denis Lin, Sam Ecker and Walker Kehrer.<\/p>\n

Stanford only loses three players from last year\u2019s squad: Matt Bruch, Blake Muller and Jeff Zeller. Bruch, the Pac-10 singles champion his freshman and senior year, is an especially big loss.<\/p>\n

Clayton is excited about the combination of new talent and experienced veterans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a few new freshmen who are going to make an impact immediately,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had a really young team last year. Everyone comes in a year older and year more mature.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of now most of the roster is set. Klahn, Clayton, Thacher, Wire, Kandath and Lin will most likely be the singles lineup.<\/p>\n

Doubles is a little more wide-open. Klahn and Thacher, the No. 1 ranked doubles team in the nation and winners of the National Indoor Championships, will assuredly be the No. 1 for Stanford. After that, there are five players \u2014 Clayton, Wire, Kandath, Lin and junior Ted Kelly \u2014 competing for the four spots on the two other doubles team.<\/p>\n

Whatever the lineups end up being, the Cardinal will not have an easy road to the NCAA Championships. Standing in the way of a dream season for Stanford are the perennial powers: USC, UCLA, Baylor, Texas, Ohio State, Mississippi and Virginia.<\/p>\n

Stanford gets it first test of the season Jan. 15-19 at the Sherwood Cup, which features some of the best teams in the nation, including USC and UCLA. While the tournament does not matter in terms of conference play, the Cup traditionally serves as a litmus test for the Cardinal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good way to see where we are as a team,\u201d Wire said.<\/p>\n

Stanford has already had one quick test \u2014 a match against University of Hawaii over Thanksgiving Break. Even without Klahn, who was out with a minor injury, the Cardinal easily defeated the Warriors 7-0.<\/p>\n

\u201cHawaii was a great warm-up,\u201d Wire said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to draw too much from it, but we were pleased with the results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stanford will quickly see how those results in Hawaii translate to the tougher Pac-10 competition. By the end of the year, the Cardinal players are hoping you will hear one more story: how they won the national championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sophomore Bradley Klahn will be an instrumental part of the 2010 men\u2019s tennis team, likely playing singles and number one doubles. Klahn and the Card have high hopes for this year after losing in the Round of 16 in last year\u2019s NCAA Tournament. (Stanford Daily File Photo) You hear stories of the Stanford men\u2019s tennis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1816,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1816"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}