Four Tigers triumph in the Ivy League individual tennis championships

Two Princeton tennis doubles pairs of senior Alan Kam with sophomore Evan Wen, and sophomore Bella Chhiv with freshman Pearlie Zhang returned from West Philadelphia on Sunday as Ivy League Individual champions.

I think [the win] helps set the tone for the spring season. Everything we do in the fall, the individual competitions, tournaments and practices, is to help us put our best foot forward in January, Chhiv wrote to The Daily Princetonian.

Unlike the usual team format of Ivy Championships, individual championships involve each school sending four players of each gender to compete in the singles draw. These players then pair up to form two teams to compete in the doubles draw.

Competing for the Princeton name and representing our team, even though it is an individual competition, is always on our minds, Chhiv explained.

On the men's side, Head Coach Billy Pate sent senior Alan Kam, sophomore Evan Wen, sophomore Aleksandar Mitric and freshman Milan Markovits. On the heels of a weekend at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Regionals, a few top-ranked Tigers, like sophomore Paul Inchauspe, were absent from the draw. On the women's side, sophomore Alice Ferlito, junior Eva Elbaz, sophomore Bella Chhiv and freshman Pearlie Zhang entered the draw as a mix of singles and doubles specialists.

Although the Ivy Individual Championships in the fall do not produce a team champion like the Ivy Team Championships held in the spring, the stakes remain high. The winners of each drawing qualify for the ITA Conference Masters Tournament, a chance to compete against the best from each conference and qualify for the NCAA Championships.

Each singles and doubles draw is populated by up to four singles players and two doubles teams from each Ivy school, leading to traditional single-elimination brackets of 32 and 16 respectively. Singles are played in the traditional best-of-three sets format, but doubles is played in an eight-game pro-set format until the final.

Action kicked off on Friday in the opening rounds of men's singles and doubles, with some success for the Tigers. Markovits, Wen and Kam all advanced from the first round of singles. On doubles, Wen and Kam shut out their Brown opponents 87 in a tiebreaker, foreshadowing their success for the rest of the tournament.

We like tiebreaks, the pressure is fun, Wen told the prince. Alan kept telling me, we're not losing this, we're not losing this, and we always came back to find out.

The momentum continued into Saturday when the women took the court. Ferlito was the only Tiger to escape the singles sets, although her success in doubles with Elbaz would end later that day in a tired third match of Day 86 against Cornell. However, Chhiv and Zhang got revenge and a spot in the semi-finals in the same score against another Big Red pair.

Back on the men's side, Saturday saw just the pair of Wen and Kam take the field and close out the Big Red 86.

In the second round we had a break and it didn't look good, Wen continued. But then we were able to turn it around.

In the semifinals that afternoon, the Tigers had another tough match against Harvard's Valdemar Pape and Mitchell Lee, but Wen and Kam had no problem breaking serve and sending the Crimson 83 to a berth in the finals.

On Championship Sunday, Ferlito, Wen and Kam all advanced to the singles semifinals in search of an ITA Masters berth. Ferlito fell 64, 64 to Yale's Shyla Aggarwal, who had come through the draw until that point. Aggarwal would win the championship in an all-Yale final.

On the men's side, Wen and Kam were lined up on opposite sides of the semi-finals, with a possible Tiger on Tiger final in the works. However, Kam couldn't get a foot in the door against Dartmouth's Carlos Guerrero Alvarez in a 63, 62 loss, while Wen had a tough match against Cornell's Felipe Pinzon, who was 131 in doubles matches last year. Wen stole the second set, but it wasn't enough. He conceded a 62, 26, 64 loss, ending Princeton's men's singles hopes.

In doubles, however, Princeton would shine and take both spots. On the men's side, Wen and Kam dropped the first set to the Yale pair of Vignesh Gogineni and Jason Shuler with a score of 63. The match almost seemed out of reach when they lost a break in the second.

We broke down and went down 42, and then something clicked, Wen said. We just started playing much better. I just decided not to miss anymore, and he played so much better, and everything just turned around.

They managed to force a tiebreak in the second set. Their clutch play of the weekend continued as they won the breaker 108. Tied at one set apiece, the pair headed to a match tiebreak. Wen and Kam's pressure game increased again as a 105 tiebreak pushed the Tiger pair to win the men's doubles draw, marking their first major tournament win together.

Wen and Kam capped off a very successful weekend with the win, each scoring 51 at the tournament.

I think after Regionals and the way we played, because we played a lot last year, I thought we were definitely a favorite. I thought I had a good shot at singles too. Wen said.

The magic of the Tigers doubles continued for Zhang and Chhiv as well. Playing a strong Yale pair including Aggarwal, the pair dominated the first set 62 and closed out the match in a much tighter tiebreak in the second set.

I think our semifinal doubles match against Yale was a turning point for us. We won the first set and in the second set our opponents changed their game plan, Chhiv said. And because of those changes, we also had to make some adjustments ourselves. We learned a lot about ourselves as a doubles pair, which gave us a lot of confidence going into the final.

Taking on a formidable Cornell pair in the final, Zhang and Chhiv came out incredibly strong, having their way in the opening set and winning 60. They never let their opponents recover, closing the second set with 75 and completing the doubles for Princeton. .

Their victory shows the success of a new pairing, as Chhiv played with Maia Sung 24 last year and Zhang is playing collegiate doubles for the first time.

Pearlie and I have a very aggressive playing style and we complement each other very well. In doubles, it is important to maintain an aggressive mentality and stay in control, Chhiv continued. And because Pearlie herself is an aggressive player, it comes naturally to us to do that. We clicked quickly and it is so much fun to be on the court with her.

Along with Wen and Kam, the pair will later be tested at the ITA Conference Masters, where a top-three finish by either in the NCAA Championships would make it a huge achievement for any Princeton player.

It doesn't matter how we do, we just tried to be one of the three teams that qualified. Wen concluded.

Tate Hutchins is an associate sports editor for the Prince.

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