STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford men's tennis wrapped up another strong season under head coach Paul Goldstein, winning 16 dual matches and advancing to the NCAA Super Regionals for the third year in a row. Arthur Fery and Nishesh Basavareddy gave the Cardinal multiple All-Americans for the first time since 2015.
DUAL SLATE ENDS IN SUPERS
Despite an injury-plagued dual slate Stanford worked its way to 16 dual wins, including eight over ranked opponents and four over top-15 foes. Stanford collected two early wins for ITA Kickoff Weekend over Georgia Tech and Texas A&M to punch its ticket to ITA Indoors, where it added a 4-0 sweep of Wake Forest. The Cardinal also picked up a strong non-conference win in Orlando over Florida, 4-1.
Stanford kicked off Pac-12 play on a strong note with home wins over Arizona and Arizona State, and later added wins at Taube over UCLA and California. The Cardinal went 10-1 at home on the season, and is 34-3 at Taube over the last four seasons.
Max with the clincher! #GoStanford #BeatCal pic.twitter.com/LMuPchB3zV
— Stanford Men's Tennis (@StanfordTennis) April 16, 2023
The Cardinal was sent to an Ivy League program for the second straight NCAA Tournament regional, and won the regional on the road for the second consecutive season. After downing Mississippi State and Harvard in Cambridge a year ago, Stanford defeated St. John's and host Columbia in New York City in May.
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Traveling to No. 4 Kentucky for the NCAA Super Regionals, Stanford won the doubles point and added wins in singles from Arthur Fery and Filip Kolasinski, but fell 4-3 on the road in Lexington.
A FERY GOOD YEAR
One of the top players in the country, Arthur Fery ended the season ranked No. 3 nationally in singles and No. 22 in doubles and was an ITA All-American in back-to-back seasons. He was named the Pac-12 Singles Player of the Year, the 20th overall in program history, and earned his second straight first team selection and third All-Pac-12 selection overall after a second team nod in 2021. The junior went 21-5 on the season, including an 18-4 mark at No. 1 singles in dual play, earning the No. 3 national seed in the NCAA singles bracket.
Fery ended his season with 14 ranked wins this season, including three over top-eight national seeds at the NCAA tournament. 30 of Fery's 56 career singles wins have come over ranked foes. Fery was also honored as an Academic All-American on May 31.
From Wimbledon to The Farm, @ArthurFery02 has established himself as one of the top players in college tennis and as a leader within our program.#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/z6IPZIKSzA
— Stanford Men's Tennis (@StanfordTennis) May 3, 2023
AN IMMEDIATE IMPRESSION
The fall slate of ITA Tournaments provided the perfect introduction for Nishesh Basavareddy, who went 17-1 before his first dual match with three wins. First, Basavareddy won the consolation bracket at the ITA All-American Championships with a 7-1 record in the event with three wins over top-15 opponents. He followed it up two weeks later with a perfect 5-0 sweep at the ITA Super Regionals to qualify for the ITA National Fall Championships.
Basavareddy was the No. 3 overall seed on the heels of his strong first two events, and he was dominant in winning five consecutive matches to win the championship, including a straight-set win over Texas' Elliot Spizzirri, who spent most of the season ranked No. 1 in the country.
The Carmel, Indiana native was the fourth Stanford player to earn the title, bringing the trophy back to the Farm for the first time in 21 years, joining past winners Dan Goldie (1985), Jeff Salzenstein (1996) and Alex Kim (2001). He gave the Cardinal a national finalist for the second year in a row, as Arthur Fery was the runner-up in 2021. Additionally, he was the first freshman to win the tournament since 2011 (Mitchell Frank, Virginia).
KILLER B'S
The middle of Stanford's lineup was a gauntlet to face, led by Basavareddy, fellow freshman Samir Banerjee and sophomore Max Basing.
Basavareddy ended his freshman campaign with a 25-9 record, earning ITA All-America honors in addition to being the ITA Northwest Rookie of the Year and an All-Pac-12 second team selection. He ended the campaign ranked No. 16 in singles and No. 22 in doubles, while soaring as high as No. 2 in singles in Februrary, and reached the round of 16 in both the NCAA singles and doubles tournaments. He ended his first year on the Farm with 13 wins over ranked foes.
Banerjee became Stanford's first Pac-12 Freshman of the Year since Tom Fawcett won the honor in 2015, and the third since 2009, joining former NCAA champion Bradley Klahn. He tallied a 17-8 record as a freshman, including a 15-5 dual mark, and was ranked as high as No. 49 during the season. An All-Pac-12 first team honoree, he ended his first-year campaign with a win in the NCAA singles championship over No. 4 Melios Efstathiou from Wake Forest.
Basing was an All-Pac-12 selection for the second consecutive season, earning first team honors in 2023 after a second-team nod in 2022. He was ranked as high as No. 4 nationally in February, going 16-8 with eight wins over ranked opponents and a semifinal appearance at the ITA All-American Championships in September. Basing was selected for the NCAA singles championship, but withdrew due to injury.
Additional Reading: John McEnroe Named 2023 Stanford Commencement Speaker
AWARDS AND ACCOLADES
| Name | Honors |
|---|---|
| Samir Banerjee | Pac-12 Freshman of the Year All-Pac-12 first team |
| Nishesh Basavareddy | ITA Fall National Champion ITA All-America All-Pac-12 second team ITA Northwest Region Rookie of the Year |
| Max Basing | All-Pac-12 first team CSC Academic All-District |
| Aryan Chaudhary | CSC Academic All-District |
| Arthur Fery | ITA All-America CSC Academic All-America third team Pac-12 Singles Player of the Year All-Pac-12 first team CSC Academic All-District |
| Filip Kolasinski | CSC Academic All-District |
| Paul Goldstein | ITA Northwest Region Rookie of the Year |
Forever enshrined.@Bryanbrothers and @Bryanbros were officially inducted to the @ITAHallofFame!#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/qpmMX2kPYz
— Stanford Men's Tennis (@StanfordTennis) May 26, 2023