May 28, 2000
ATHENS, Georgia - Junior Alex Kim (Potomac, MD/Winston Churchill HS) became the 13th player in Stanford history to win the NCAA Men's Singles Championship after a decisive 6-1, 6-1 win over Carlos Drada of Kentucky on Sunday afternoon at the University of Georgia.
"This is one of the most unbelievable feelings," Kim said. "To come down here and win the team and individual titles and now to play in the U.S. Open is something I never imagined. It's great to keep up the Stanford tradition. We've had so many great players come through here."
"Sometimes players have good runs in these tournaments," Drada said. "Alex is a very good player, and the way he plays allows him to stay fresh. He has very quick hands, which helps him a lot. His mixture of talent and confidence coming into this tournament makes him very hard to beat."
Kim, who helped lead Stanford to its 17th NCAA team championship with a 4-0 win over Virginia Commonwealth in the finals on Tuesday, is Stanford's first singles champion since Bob Bryan defeated teammate Paul Goldstein in the finals in 1998. Kim's victory, coupled with freshman Laura Granville's win in the NCAA Women's Championship on Friday in Malibu, gives the Cardinal a clean sweep of the national singles titles.
The fifth-seeded and seventh-ranked Kim dominated the unseeded Drada, who had ousted top-seeded Jeff Morrison of Florida on Saturday, from start to finish. Drada, who was slowed by a back injury, became the fifth of Kim's six opponents in the tournament to fall in straight sets. The only player to take Kim to three sets was Cardinal teammate K.J. Hippensteel (Roanoke, VA/International Academy), who fell 6-2, 6-7 (1), 6-2 in Saturday's semifinals.
"It's unfortunate that (a back injury) had to happen to Carlos in the final," Kim said. "This is probably the best I've played consistently through a whole tournament. I still have a lot of things I have to work on. This week I broke serve and then held better than I have all year."
"I am not sure what happened to my back today," Drada said. "I had problems with it six years ago. I had back spasms in some of the earlier matches, but it really bothered me today. However, I do want to make it clear that Alex is a very talented player who would have been tough to beat even if I was completely healthy. I wish I could have played him at 100 percent today."
Kim finishes the season with a 48-7 singles mark, and owns a career 107-20 record in three seasons on The Farm. He was ranked as high as No. 2 in the 2000 regular season rankings in singles, after finishing the '99 season ranked No. 70 in the nation. In addition to the NCAA singles title, Kim was a singles champion at the ITA Regional and National Collegiate Tennis Classic this season and won doubles titles with partner Geoff Abrams (Newport Beach,CA/Newport Harbor HS) at the ITA All-American and National Collegiate Tennis Classic.
NCAA Men's Tennis Singles Championships
At The University of Georgia
Finals (Seeds in parenthesis)
(5) Alex Kim (Stanford) d. Carlos Drada (Kentucky), 6-1, 6-1
Alex Kim's Road To The NCAA Title:
First Round - d. Toby Hansson (SMU), 6-2, 6-0, Second Round - d. Oliver Maiberger (San Diego State), 6-3, 7-6 (4), Third Round - d. Jeff Laski (Illinois), 6-0, 6-2, Quarterfinals - d. (2) Brian Vahaly (Virginia), 6-3, 7-5, Semifinals - d. (9-16) K.J. Hippensteel (Stanford), 6-2, 6-7 (1), 6-2, Finals - d. Carlos Drada (Kentucky), 6-1, 6-1.
Stanford's NCAA Singles Champions
1921 - Philip Neer, 1931 - Keith Gledhill, 1942 - Frederick R. Schroeder Jr., 1973 - Alex Mayer, 1974 - John Whitlinger, 1977 - Matt Mitchell, 1978 - John McEnroe, 1981 - Tim Mayotte, 1986 - Dan Goldie, 1991 - Jared Palmer, 1992 - Alex O'Brien, 1998 - Bob Bryan, 2000 - Alex Kim.