March 4, 2012
STANFORD, Calif.- Stanford's top duo of Bradley Klahn and Ryan Thacher defended their tournament crown with a 6-4, 6-4 victory in Sunday's championship match at the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships in La Jolla, Calif.
Klahn and Thacher captured their second straight title, picking up a 6-4, 6-4 win over the independent team of Kris Kwinta of Poland and John Peers of Australia.
With the victory, Klahn and Thacher become the first team to capture back-to-back titles at the historic tournament since former Stanford standouts Jared Palmer and Jonathan Stark accomplished the feat in 1990-91.
It's the seventh doubles title for Klahn and Thacher since pairing up as freshmen three years ago.
"With such a deep field, we tried not to get too caught up with the idea that we were defending our title," said Klahn. "But we just got better as the tournament went on. By the end, we really jelled together. Maybe it's because our (left-handed) serves take a while to get used to, but our games really seem to complement each other. Whatever it is, it works for us."
Each set was decided by a single service break. Klahn and Thacher broke serve in the initial game of the first set, and also in game seven of the deciding set, taking a 4-3 lead.
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Championship Match
Bradley Klahn/Ryan Thacher d. Kris Kwinta/John Peers (Independent) 6-4, 6-4
Semifinals
Bradley Klahn/Ryan Thacher d. Sebastian Fanselow/Jenson Turner (Pepperdine) 6-2, 7-6 (3)
Quarterfinals
Bradley Klahn/Ryan Thacher d. Chase Melton/Ben McLachlan (California) 6-4, 6-1
Fourth Round
Bradley Klahn/Ryan Thacher d. Peter Lucassen/Jaak Poldma (USC) 6-1, 6-1
Third Round
Bradley Klahn/Ryan Thacher d. Thorsten Bertsch/Derek Siddiqui (San Diego State) 6-2, 6-3
Dennis Mkrtchian/Maxime Tabatruong (UCLA) d. John Morrissey/Robert Stineman 1-6, 6-4, 1-0 (4)
Second Round
Bradley Klahn/Ryan Thacher d. Ryan Peyton/Michael Rosengren (Villanova) 6-0, 6-0
John Morrissey/Robert Stineman d. Akash Muppidi/Alexander Skinner (Boston College) 7-5, 6-1
Jonathan Chang/Michael Nuesslein (Rice) d. Matt Kandath/Denis Lin 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (9)
First Round
John Morrissey/Robert Stineman d. James Boyd/Victor Pugliese (San Diego) 6-3, 6-1
Michael Meyer/IND (Independent) d. Jamin Ball/Walker Kehrer 6-4, 6-3
Matt Kandath/Denis Lin d. Andrew Duckworth/William Mullen (CMS) 6-1, 6-2