Friday, Sept. 30 vs. McGill
Waterloo 4, McGill 3

The Waterloo men's tennis team hosted their counterparts from McGill University on Friday. Playing without their no. 1 player, Vincent Chan (Markham/), the Warriors won the doubles point, winning two of the three doubles matches. This was the first time this season they were able to gain that first point. It proved to be a critical win as the following six singles matches were split evenly enabling the Warriors to sneak out a 4-3 win.

The Warriors wins came from #4, 5 and 6. With the score at 3-3, it came down to the last match. This was being played by #4 Alex Sahu. Sahu lost the first set 5-7 but fought back to take the second set 6-4. In the third he raced to a 4-0 lead but double faults littered his next two service games allowing his opponent to make a comeback. The tennis by then turned into an even more tense and hard-fought affair.

Fortunately for Sahu, his groundstrokes did not desert him and in particular, one glorious backhand winner down the line to hold serve. Fine performances from #5 Steven Nieboer (Waterloo/) and #6 Lee Follis (Brantford/St. John's College) contributed to the Warriors win. All the Warriors played well as even the losses were very close ones.

Summary of Results

Doubles
Yardi & Virjee (W) bt Hibberd & Berthelemot 8-7 (3)
Sahu & Nieboer (W) bt Fox & Madej 6-8
Follis & Yu (W) lost to Daigneault & Wu 8-4

Singles
Yardi lost to Hibberd 6-4, 1-6, 2-6
Virjee lost to Berthelemot 6-7 (2) 5-7
Awadia lost to Fox 6-7 (3) 6-7 (4)
Sahu bt Madej 5-7, 6-4, 6-4
Nieboer bt Daigneault 7-5, 6-2
Follis bt Chemblette 6-2, 6-2

Sunday, Oct. 2 @ Toronto
Toronto 4, Waterloo 3

The Warriors men and women traveled to Toronto on Sunday to face the Blues. The match, originally scheduled to be played at the Blues' Scarborough campus was relocated to the Mayfair West club because of the wet weather. The Warriors started off well, winning two of the doubles matches to earn the doubles point. The matches were very close with the rookie pair of Lee Follis (Brantford/St. John's College) and Daniel Yu coming through 8-6 at #3 position to win the second doubles match. Warriors' #1 pair of Vincent Chan (Markham/) and Nachiket Yardi (Mississauga/) earlier had a close encounter of their own also winning 8-6.

All the singles matches were hard-fought affairs and the quality of tennis was high. #1 Vincent Chan (Markham/) won in three sets as did #3 Zubair Virjee (Calgary/) but #2 Nachiket Yardi (Mississauga/) fell in the third. Chan's match against Stefan Srnic went the distance with Chan winning 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(2). Yardi lost to Eren Turkmenler 7-5, 4-6, 4-6 and  Lee Follis (Brantford/St. John's College) playing at #4 position gave a very good account of himself before losing 6-7, 5-7 to Farhaad Virjee.  Follis, normally at #6 when he plays had to move up to take the place of injured Alex Sahu, the hero of Friday's win against McGill. With the Blues winning four of the singles matches, it was enough to give them the win over the Warriors 4-3. Despite the narrow loss, all the Warriors playing on Sunday fought well and hard.