STANFORD, Calif. – The 22nd-ranked Cardinal returns from its brief break in dual action to play four matches next week, hosting three. Stanford will open the week hosting 25th-ranked Illinois on Monday, March 27 at 11 a.m. PT at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium.
Following the Illinois match, the Cardinal travels south to take on San Diego State on Wednesday before returning home to take on Pac-12 foes Arizona on Friday, March 31 at 3 p.m. PT and Utah Saturday, April 1 at noon.
Last Time Out:
The Cardinal (8-4) is coming off a brief hiatus after a stellar week that saw Stanford upset No. 8 Cal and No. 8 Texas while nearly completing the sweep, but falling just shy to No. 31 TCU all at home at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium.
Cal: Against Bay Area and Pac-12 rival Cal, the Cardinal pulled out a 4-3 thriller that came down to the very last tiebreak. The start was ominous for Stanford as Cal took the doubles point, but Sameer Kumar fired back to tie it with a straight sets win over 30th-ranked Andre Goransson at the No. 2 position.
Cal answered with a win at No. 4, but David Wilczynski stepped up for another straight sets win at No. 5 before Tom Fawcett put the Cardinal on the cusp with a gritty 7-6(5), 6-4 win over 14th-ranked Florian Lakat at No. 1. A loss at six put the spotlight and deciding match at No. 3 where Michael Genender took the first set from No. 109 Filip Bergevi.
The Bear scrapped back for a set two win in the tiebreak before the pair battled back and forth in the third with all eyes in Taube trained on them. In electrifying fashion the Cardinal sophomore pulled out the win in a 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-6(9) finish.
Texas: The story was a bit different against the 8th-ranked Longhorns, whom the Cardinal dispatched easily with a 4-1 win. Stanford jumped out to grab the doubles point, though UT was able to answer with a quick win at No. 4. That was all that would be heard from Texas that day though with Sameer Kumar, Brandon Sutter and David Wilczynski all ripping off wins to slam the door shut on the win.
TCU: The possibility of a sweep looked promising against the Horned Frogs with the Cardinal jumping out to a lead with the doubles point and David Wilczynski and Brandon Sutter putting Stanford up 3-0. TCU kept chipping away with wins at Nos. 2, 1 and 3 before Jerry Lopez managed to complete the comeback with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Jack Barber to snake off with the 4-3 win.
Cardinal Honored:
David Wilczynski saw a career first last week as he was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week for his flawless week in singles against three ranked teams.
Wilczynski opened his perfect 3-0 week against Bjorn Hoffman as Stanford faced-off against the sixth-ranked Cal Bears. The Cardinal dominated his Golden Bear opponent in straight sets 6-2, 6-1, setting up Stanford for a thrilling down-to-the-wire 4-3 win.
Up next saw the eighth-ranked Texas Longhorns where the junior took on No. 108 Leonardo Telles in the five position where Wilczynski again dispatched his opponents in a 6-4, 6-3 straight sets win, this time to clinch the match for Stanford in his sixth career-clinching point and second of the season with the previous one coming against Memphis on January 29.
Closing out his perfect week, the Cardinal took on TCU's Reese Stalder, whom Wilczynski dominated in his third straight sets win on the week 6-1, 6-1.
The week gave Wilczynski 50 career wins as well as 29 dual wins – only 11 away from entering the Stanford Men's Tennis history book. Included on that list are tennis legends such as Roscoe Tanner, Tim Mayotte, Bob Bryan, John Morrissey, Patrick McEnroe and the Taube Family Director of Men's Tennis Paul Goldstein.
The honor is the first in Wilczynski's career as well as the 15th all-time for Stanford and the first for the Cardinal since the 2015 season.
All-Time Series History
Illinois – Entering its 20th year, the Cardinal holds a 6-4 all-time record with the last meeting coming in 2010 and resulting in a 4-3 Stanford win in Champaign, Ill.
San Diego State – Starting in 1982 the Cardinal has compiled an impressive flawless 12-0 record against the Aztecs with the last meeting coming last year. The Cardinal blanked SDSU 7-0 with Tom Fawcett claiming the clincher at the Broadway Tennis Center in Burlingame, Calif.
Arizona – A long-time Pac-12 opponent, the Wildcats and Cardinal go all the way back to 1973. Friday's match will be the 70th time the teams have met with Stanford owning an incredible 67-2 record over UA. Last season Stanford topped Arizona 4-1 in Tucson with Nolan Paige clinching the win at the No. 4 spot.
Utah – The Utes and Cardinal enter into Saturday's match with over 40 years of history. Starting in 1969, the Cardinal has dominated Utah with a 34-1 all-time record. Last time out against the Utes, Stanford took a 4-2 win with Nolan Paige coming through again as the clincher in Salt Lake City.
Fall Recap
The Cardinal came off another successful fall campaign that saw Tom Fawcett help lead the U.S. team to victory for the second straight year at the 2016 Master'U BNP Paribus International Team competition in France in November.
Fawcett also reached the quarterfinals of the ITA All-American Championships and was the consolation runner-up in the National Individual Indoor Championships. He enters the season ranked No. 8 by the ITA.
In addition, Yale Goldberg and Sameer Kumar captured the ITA Northwest Regional doubles title. The duo fought off multiple match points in the championship en route to the title. The team enters the dual season ranked No. 15 by the ITA.
In the final tune-up of the season before dual play, the Cardinal traveled to the Sherwood Collegiate Cup in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Jack Barber, in his first match in 22 months after recovering from surgery, topped the 11th-ranked Gage Brymer of UCLA before finishing as a semifinalist in the singles main draw.