Men's Tennis Shoots For Titles

April 26, 2000

STANFORD SHOOTS FOR PAC-10 SINGLES, DOUBLES TITLES IN OJAI: The top-ranked and 2000 Pac-10 team champion Stanford Cardinal men's tennis team begins the postseason this weekend at the Pac-10 Individual Championships from Thursday-Sunday at Libby Park in Ojai, California ... The Pac-10 Tournament, which is held in conjunction with the oldest amateur tournament in the United States - the 100th Annual Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament, features two separate singles and doubles tournaments ... The 32-player main singles draw consists of four players from each of the eight Pac-10 schools that sponsor men's tennis, while the 16-team doubles draw consists of two teams from each school ... The Pac-10 Invitational Tournament will also consist of a 32-player singles draw and 16-team doubles draw with four singles players and two doubles teams per school ... Stanford players have won the last three Pac-10 main draw singles titles, and four of the last five ... Scott Humphries won the event in 1995, followed by Bob Bryan in '97, Paul Goldstein in '98 and Ryan Wolters in '99 ... The Cardinal has also won three of the last four doubles titles, with Goldstein and Jim Thomas winning in '96, Goldstein and Wolters in '97 and Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan in '98.

SINGLES ENTRANTS: Going into the Pac-10 Individual Singles Tournament, Stanford's top three singles players are each ranked higher nationally than any other player in the conference ... Stanford junior Alex Kim (Potomac, MD/Winston Churchill HS) is the sixth-ranked player in the nation according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Apr. 28 rankings, while senior Geoff Abrams (Newport Beach, CA/Newport Harbor HS) is ninth and junior K.J. Hippensteel (Roanoke, VA/International Academy) is 15th ... Those three nationally-ranked players, as well as junior Scotty Scott (Belvedere, CA/Pinewood HS), are Stanford's four entrants in the 32-player main draw ... In Thursday's first round matches, Kim (34-6 overall, 18-4 duals) will face Washington's Marius Lunde at 8:00 a.m., Scott (19-6, 17-5) takes on 45th-ranked Guillermo Carter of Oregon at 9:30 a.m., Abrams (37-6, 20-2) meets Oregon's Joaquin Hamdan at 11:00 a.m. and Hippensteel (11-5, 5-4) faces off against 99th-ranked Ed Carter of Arizona State at 12:30 p.m. ... The second round will also be held on Thursday, with the quarterfinals on Friday, semifinals on Saturday and finals on Sunday ... Of Stanford's four main draw participants, Kim had the best record against Pac-10 opponents at 16-2, while Abrams was 16-3, Scott 12-2 and Hippensteel 2-5 ... Stanford's entrants in the invitational tournament are junior Ali Ansari (Houston, TX/Second Baptist HS) and freshmen Scott Lipsky (Merrick, NY/Bellinore-Kennedy HS), David Martin (Key Biscayne, FL/Boca Raton Prep) and Carter Morris (Washington, D.C./St. Alban's HS) ... Ansari (18-6, 16-4) and Martin (25-11, 18-6) will receive first round byes, while Morris (8-1, 6-0) meets Oregon's Jason Menke at 9:30 a.m. and Lipsky (10-6, 8-5) faces Leslie Eisinga of Oregon at 11:00 a.m.

DOUBLES ENTRANTS: Stanford's Geoff Abrams and Kim, who have been the No. 1 ranked doubles team in the nation since December, are aiming for their third tournament titles of the year ... In their four tournaments this year, Abrams and Kim (32-5, 17-3) have won both the ITA All-American and National Collegiate Tennis Classic, reached the finals of the Pacific Coast Doubles and the semifinals of the ITA Indoors ... But the road to the finals won't be easy, as six of the other 15 teams entered are ranked nationally by the ITA ... First and second round play in the doubles competition will be on Friday, with the semifinals on Saturday and finals on Sunday ... Abrams and Kim face Arizona's Jean-Noel Lacoste and Michel Stopa in first round action on Friday at 11:00 a.m., while Stanford's 30th-ranked pair of K.J. Hippensteel and David Martin will face seventh-ranked Brandon Kramer and Jong-Min Lee of UCLA on Friday at 12:30 pm. ... Abrams and Kim are 13-3 against Pac-10 opponents this season, and 2-0 against LaCoste and Stopa with an 8-6 win on Mar. 31 at Stanford and an 8-5 victory on Apr. 15 in Tucson ... Hippensteel and Martin, who were ranked as high as No. 5 in the country before Hippensteel missed nearly three months with mononucleosis, have won seven of their 10 matches against conference opposition ... In the men's doubles invitational, both of Stanford's doubles entrants received first round byes and will open up on Friday afternoon in the quarterfinals ... Juniors Ali Ansari and Scotty Scott (17-4, 15-3), who have won 11 of their last 12, will play the winner of the first round match between Cal's Adrian Barnes and Hiro Nakamura and UCLA's Erfan Djahangiri and Chris Sands at 2:00 p.m., while Cardinal freshmen Scott Lipsky and Carter Morris (5-1, 2-0) will face off against UCLA's Lassi Ketola and Travis Rettenmaier at 3:30 p.m.

CARDINAL CLINCHES PAC-10 TEAM TITLE: Stanford won its third straight Pac-10 title and 17th in school history with a 5-2 win at Arizona on Apr. 15 ... The Cardinal finished Pac-10 play a perfect 7-0 to win the conference title by one game over UCLA and two games over USC ... In those seven matches, Stanford outscored its opponents 35-14 ... The Cardinal won the '98 conference title with a 12-0 mark, and tied with UCLA for the crown at 6-1 last season ... Stanford also won Pac-10 titles in 1928, '29, '31, '33 (co-champion w/Cal), '35, '42 (Southern Division), '72, '74, '78 (Southern Division), '79 (Southern Division), '80 (co-Southern Division w/USC), '83 (Southern Division), '88 (Southern Division) and '95 (co-Southern Division w/USC).

THE RANKINGS: Stanford is enjoying its second run at No. 1 this season, and has been atop the national rankings for a total of six weeks this season ... The Cardinal was ranked No. 1 from Mar. 1-15 after winning the National Team Indoor Championships in Louisville, and regained the No. 1 ranking on Apr. 12 following a 4-3 home win over then-No. 1 UCLA on Apr. 7 ... In the Apr. 26 ITA Singles Rankings, junior Alex Kim dropped thee spots to No. 6, Geoff Abrams jumped up four spots to No. 8 and K.J. Hippensteel fell two slots to No. 15 ... Scotty Scott, who was previously ranked No. 94, fell out of the top 100 ... In doubles, Abrams and Kim continued their five month reign at No. 1, while Hippensteel and Martin fell nine spots to No. 30.

ITA Rankings

ITA Team Rankings
(as of April 26, 2000)

ITA Singles Rankings
(as of April 26, 2000)

ITA Doubles Rankings