Last year, Binghamton University senior Sven Vloedgraven surpassed expectations and won six matches at Dartmouth to capture the ITA Northeast Regional Singles Championships. The 84th-ranked Bearcat defended his title this weekend, defeating Princeton’s Matija Pecotic 6-2, 5-7, 6-0 Tuesday morning at Yale University.
With the victory, Vloedgraven will advance to the 2010 USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, which are scheduled from Nov. 4-7 at the USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing.
Vloedgraven made his last match more dramatic than he probably would have liked, losing the second set 7-5 and relying on the decisive third set to win the championship. Despite this slight hiccup, Vloedgraven exhibited the skills and composure that propelled him to the finals, winning the final set without losing a game.
‘I think I won because I was the most consistent throughout the whole tournament, especially on the big points,’ Vloedgraven said. ‘I had to face many breakpoints on my serve, but I played my best game at these points. I was able to play well for a whole match instead of one set, and I was able to play my best when it mattered most.’
The five-day tournament was physically and mentally taxing for top-seeded Vloedgraven. The singles draw began with 96 players. He won six matches over five days en route to the title. He defeated three players from host team Yale, a player from Princeton and a player from Stony Brook to punch his ticket to the final against Pecotic. There were a couple of scares mixed in there, as he dropped the first set in both the round of 32 and the round of 16 before winning each. The other three matches were won in two sets.
‘The length definitely took a toll on me,’ Vloedgraven said. ‘The first three matches were very tough and I had to play my best to beat those guys, so I was very tired going into the quarters. I took care of myself well, though. In the final, I kept running down shots and I think that frustrated Pecotic. He was not expecting me to do that for three sets, especially after already having played five singles matches.’
Vloedgraven split the first two sets with Pecotic, 6-2, 5-7. He broke Pecotic to open the third and deciding set, roaring to a 6-0 finish.
Just two rounds earlier in the quarterfinals, Pecotic ended a successful tournament for Binghamton’s Arnav Jain. The 116th-ranked Jain, a senior and the No. 11 seed in the tournament, defeated Roope Kailaheimo of Stony Brook, Mike Hill of Brown and upset fifth-seeded Andy Gauthier of Cornell before being bounced from the tournament. Interestingly enough, Vloedgraven beat all three of the aforementioned opponents in last year’s tournament.
‘My mental calmness helped me this weekend,’ Jain said. ‘So did my consistency in hitting forehands and my serve. I executed the game plan well, and on big points I tried to be the more aggressive player.’
The number of matches and the high caliber of play were fatiguing factors for Jain, but he battled through the adversity all tournament.
‘Physically it was very challenging having to play two to three matches a day,’ he said. ‘I just tried to keep my mind strong and focus on each point at a time.’
Besides Vloedgraven and Jain, Alexandre Haggai and Gilbert Wong also advanced to the third round before falling to Daniel Hoffman from Yale and Phil Law of UPenn, respectively.
Despite Binghamton’s remarkable team results, the tournament belonged to Vloedgraven. After setting the school record for wins in a season and being named the America East Player of the Year last year, Vloedgraven entered this year as the top-ranked player in the Northeast. Although Vloedgraven is no stranger to winning big tournaments, as he won the same tournament last year, winning this tournament was perhaps his most monumental achievement yet. Defending champions always have a target on their back, which is the result of every other player wanting to defeat the champion. In this tournament, no one would have such luck.
The Bearcats are looking to follow up a successful 25-2 season last year, where both Vloedgraven and Jain were key contributors.
‘My main goal is to get better in every match,’ Jain said. ‘If I keep doing that I know results will be positive. We have a lot of good matches this spring against schools we have never played against, so we are looking forward to the challenge. I would like our team to keep doing what it does best: Keep winning and rise in the national rankings.’
Vloedgraven also has lofty ambitions for his team and for himself this season.
‘My team’s goals are still the same: To be the top team in the region and stay in the top 50 teams in the nation. We want to go to the NCAA tournament again and win a round after coming close last year.’
‘The biggest goal for me would be to qualify for the NCAA individual tournament again. I want to hold down the first place (Northeast) regional ranking and hope to move up in the national rankings.’
Vloedgraven will prepare for the Indoor Championships in Flushing, where he will look to improve upon last year’s performance in which he lost a match to the No. 7 seed in the first round and then to the No. 4 seed of the consolation bracket. The rest of the team will prepare for the Cornell Fall Invitational from Oct. 29-31, where Haggai won the B-Singles flight last year.