Waterloo Men vs Montreal and Western

The Waterloo Warriors opened their 2014 season on the weekend against two of the strongest teams in the OUA, Montreal and Western. Waterloo was at home on Saturday against Montreal and traveled to London on Sunday to play against Western.

Playing at the Waterloo Tennis Club on Saturday, the men's team lost 3-4 to the Carabins.  Of the starting six players for the Warriors, three were rookies.

The Warriors lost the doubles point when only the number two pair of John Chan (Whistler/) and rookie Joe Zeng (Markham/) managed to steal a 8-7 victory in a hard-hitting and exciting match.

The Warriors three points came from their top three players. Vincent Chan (Markham/), the Warriors number one player for the last four years; John Chan (Whistler/), last year's OUA Rookie of the year; and rookie, Joe Zeng (Markham/) competed well over the weekend.

While Vincent and Joe Zeng (Markham/) won their matches handily, John, short on match play, had a much tougher time but managed to come through in three sets. Rookies Nathaniel Flach (Toronto/) and Kamil Ladhani (West Vancouver/) made their debuts against very tough opponents while third year veteran and team captain Lee Follis (Brantford/St. John's College) was unable to overcome his opponent in a tightly fought match, losing in three sets.  

On Sunday, the Warriors faced Western, the OUA men's champion of the last two years. Like Saturday, the Warriors were only able to win one of the three doubles matches and were unable to get that important one point. The win came this time from the number one doubles pair of Vincent Chan (Markham/) and Nate Flach who had an easy win over Zack Harmath and Sasha Leznoff. John Chan (Whistler/) and Zeng were beaten 1-8 but the match was much closer than the score suggests. Number three pair of Follis and Ladhani were overwhelmed in the first few games but steadily gained on their opponents and made the match exciting before losing 5-8.

Again like Saturday, Warriors three points came from the top three singles players; Zeng, Chan and Chan. All three matches were closely contested ones, with number one and two going the distance.  Number four Lee Follis (Brantford/St. John's College) was in good form but failed narrowly to overcome a player noted for his consistency. Another rookie, Thomas Lee (Calgary/) of Alberta, made his debut on Sunday and had a tough match losing 3-6, 0-6 to a more match fit opponent. 

The Warriors will have a busy weekend ahead of them, travelling to Oshawa Friday to play OUIT, a date with York on Saturday, then back home to host McMaster on Sunday.

Results: Waterloo vs Montreal, Sept. 13
 
Doubles:
Vincent Chan (Markham/) & Nathaniel Flach (Toronto/) lost to Colombian Bounine & Julien Cheaib 6-8
John Chan (Whistler/) & Joe Zeng (Markham/) defeated Remi Trudeau & Andrew Beljaars  8-7 (4)
Lee Follis (Brantford/St. John's College) & Kamil Ladhani (West Vancouver/) lost to Augustin Lazarus & Antoine Bourdan 8 -3 
 
Singles:
Vincent Chan (Markham/) defeated Colombian Bounine 6-3, 6-2
John Chan (Whistler/) defeated Julien Cheaib 5-7, 7-6, 6-0
Joe Zeng (Markham/) defeated Remi Trudeau 6-1, 6-3
Nate Flach lost to Augustin Lazarus 2-6, 1-6
Lee Follis (Brantford/St. John's College) lost to Demian Aquino 5-7, 6-0, 3-6
Kamil Ladhani (West Vancouver/) lost to Andrew Beljaars 1-6, 1-6
 
Waterloo vs Western, Sept. 14
 
Doubles:
 Vincent Chan (Markham/) & Nate Flach defeated Zack Harmath 8-2
John Chan (Whistler/) & Joe Zeng (Markham/) lost to Andre Szilvassy & Vahagn Tonekanian 1-8
Lee Follis (Brantford/St. John's College) & Kamil Ladhani (West Vancouver/) lost to Matt Jaekel & Max Besworth 5-8
 
Singles:
Joe Zeng (Markham/) defeated Zack Harmath 1-6, 6-4, 6-2
Vincent Chan (Markham/) defeated Andre Szilvassy 4-6, 6-1, 6-4
John Chan (Whistler/) defeated Aman Dhaliwal 7-6, 6-3
Lee Follis (Brantford/St. John's College) lost to Matt Jaekel 5-7, 4-6
Nate Flach lost to Vahagn Tonekanian 1-6, 2-6
Thomas Lee (Calgary/) lost to Alex Lau 3-6, 0-6