University of Chicago
Coach: Jay Tee
Location: Chicago, IL
Preseason ranking: #17
I will not give in to the hype….I will not give in to the hype…I will not give in to the hype. Screw it, Chicago NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP or bust! Ok, all jokes aside, I finally can write about a team in the Central region that I am truly excited about. Looking back at last season’s team preview, I pegged the 2015 Chicago squad to be a team to look out for and needless to say, I was right. We all know the history of this program so it is difficult to overlook the stigma of being an extremely talented team that underachieves every year. Last year, Chicago had one stretch of matches that kept them out of the Top 15. Their loss to Whitewater was horrific and they will need to avoid laying an egg like that this season to stay atop and in the national conversation. The good news with the Maroons this season is they have a few veteran players that will hopefully help the best recruiting class in the country figure out what it takes to be successful on the tennis court at such a tough academic school. Also good news is that this team has such a deep squad that sitting out players for injuries, academic responsibilities, or anything of the sort won’t hurt them too much. Chicago arrived on the scene at the fall ITA dominating the deepest tourney in the country along with Wash U and thrust their name into the big picture with freshman Nicolas Chua not only winning the ITA Regional, but also taking down the national title. Again, I caution readers (myself included) to get too excited as they have accomplished very little as a team, but the individual accolades are there so the talent is ready to burst. They come in as the #17 team in the country and are virtually 4 players (all freshmen) better than they were last season. The question that remains is if Chicago can come together as a close knit team to begin to dominate regional opponents and win matches in the national spotlight. With a shrinking Pool C, every match this season will be important and I expect the Maroons to fare well and earn a spot.
Key losses: Krishna Ravella (doubles) and Szolt Szabo (5 singles)
Key additions: Nicolas Chua, Peter Leung, David Liu, Luke Tsai, Michael Selin (all top ranked freshmen)
Singles Lineup:
1 Singles: Nicolas Chua, FR: While the rest of the lineup could go a lot of different directions, choosing Chua at the top spot was easy. After dismantling most of the Wash U lineup to win his ITA regional draw, Chua went on to take the D3 fall national championship which is quite an honor for a freshman. I personally watched many of his matches in Indy and while he may be small, his game is just the opposite. Watching him hit backhand winner after backhand winner, jaws would drop at how he can create so much pace from his small frame. I think the bigger wins in the fall were against other conference opponents top guys like Putterman from Wash U and Ruderman from Emory. Those are matches he will see again and be important come spring time.
2 Singles: Deepak Sabada, SR: Deepak is the model of consistency in that he typically gets the job done. He had one glaring loss last season to Guerra from Denison, but rebounded with some good wins to qualify for individual nationals. His fall could have gone better as he didn’t fare well at the Purdue Invite and fell to a big hitting Russian from Earlham in the ITA tourney, but I expect Deepak to stay near the top of the lineup. He has been there most of his career and should be a great senior leader for this team. What he lacked in singles results, he made up for by winning the doubles draw with Liu. That doubles prowess could be the difference from Chicago being a top 15 team to a top 10 or even 5 come May.
3 Singles: Peter Leung, FR: Leung is a top rated freshman that coming into the season probably would have been slated to play #1, but Chua clearly had the best fall possible and Leung didn’t fare too well at ITAs. His three set loss to Santen from Depauw (likely playing 4) hurt his stock a bit, but I think Leung should be a solid #3 and could even see him overtaking Sabada if the results are there early this spring. His entire junior career was spent in the Top 100 including 3 wins at Kzoo nationals so he has the big match experience to win against top competition.
4 Singles: David Liu. FR: Another Top 100 Chicago freshman should break into the top 4. That’s three freshman in the top four for those of you who are counting. Relying on so much inexperience may be difficult, but Liu also has the resume to fare well. Liu took out national qualifier Brandon Metzler (Kzoo) and James Fojtasek (Case’s 3) before having the match of the tournament with fellow Oberlin frosh Michael Drougas. Liu prevailed and most likely had nothing left as he fell to Kratky from Wash U later in the day in the semis. I will note that Kratky had a three setter as well, but probably an hour of court time shorter. His game isn’t all that impressive as he is just a consistent player from the baseline, but he seems mentally tough as he pulled out a win with a rowdy Oberlin crowd in his ear after every point.
5 Singles: Sven Kranz. SO: Kranz spent some time at the top spot early in the year last season and finished playing #2 behind Sabada. Obviously moving down three spots will only help the success. Fall results are actually pretty good even though it is hard to tell that just by looking at the scores. Kranz fell in the finals of his flight at the Purdue Invite against solid D1 competition. At the ITAs, he retired against Kratky in the third round even though he was up a set. If I remember correctly, he was suffering from heat exhaustion as it was a very rough weekend in terms of weather. This is where I think the Chicago depth will really dominate other teams. The freshmen at 3 and 4 are going to compete with anyone, but can’t necessarily be counted on until we find out how good they really are.
6 Singles: Ankur Bhargava/Luke Tsai. The six spot could be anyone that is left. I think both Bhargava and Tsai have a slight edge, but teammates Brian Sun, Max Hawkins, and Michael Selin all could feature at some point throughout the season. I have always been a big fan of Bhargava as I think he is extremely underrated. He is capable of beating some of the best players as he had wins over Bush (Wash U) and Drougas (Case) last season. Tsai is another talented freshman that upset Heerboth (Kenyon’s 1) and was up a set on Bush at the fall ITA. Sun is also underrated and easily could be a great #6. Whomever wins the spot should be very successful.
Doubles: Doubles play has always been an weakness for Chicago and it has made it difficult for them to have the success as a team as they should. I know Coach Tee understands the importance and has made it a point of emphasis heading into the season. With many of the top teams in the Central region being very strong in doubles like Case, Wash U, Gustavus, Denison, and Depauw, it is important for the Maroons to at least steal a match and then rely on singles to bail them out. Coming back from a sweep is difficult to say the least. Things are looking up for Chicago this season on the doubles court so that has to give them some confidence. As I mentioned before, Sabada teamed with Liu to win the fall ITA over Case’s top team of Krimbill/Stuerke. They showed it wasn’t a fluke as they won the first round match at nationals over the Bates top team. That is two wins over the teams that found themselves in the finals of the national championships last season. Two and three doubles could be interchangeable as I see Leung and Chua playing together and Kranz teaming with Bhargava. I would say that neither will be a weak spot for Chicago and they could even be favored against some of the better teams in the country. One thing is for certain, if Chicago gets their doubles play in gear with their singles talent, this is a top 5 team. There, I said it….
Schedule
http://athletics.uchicago.edu/sports/mten/2014-15/schedule
Back in the fall in Coach Tee’s interview, he said all the right things pointing out that a successful season is dependent on work put in the off season so hopefully his guys bought into it because it doesn’t take Chicago too long to have some important matches on the schedule. While the Maroons aren’t in any of the big tournaments yet like Indoors or Stag Hen, they will have plenty of opportunities to bolster their resume.
For the most part, I love the early schedule for Chicago. Next weekend, they start things off against D1 Depaul (with an “L”) which will be a no pressure match that they aren’t expected to win. Based off of some fall results, I think Chicago might actually have a chance to win this. Either way, it doesn’t matter. They then will go away to play Coe. Coe won’t threaten to beat Chicago, but they will at least give a good regional team for Chicago to play on the road. A big weekend following these matches will have Chicago playing Denison, Case, and Kenyon in consecutive days. I think this it is huge that they don’t play any of these matches on the same day. Denison put a scare in the Maroons last season, but I don’t expect anything even close this year. Case is obviously the big one and we will get a good idea of what kind of results to expect of Chicago for the season. It will be held at Case so it will be a hostile environment favoring the Spartans. Chicago isn’t a team that typically comes with a lot of fiery support so it will be key for them to handle the intensity well if they hope to win. For now, I have to favor Case because they will hope to shock Chicago in doubles and continue with the momentum in singles. If Chicago steals a doubles point (and I think they will), this match will finish 5-4 in either direction. Massive Pool C implications for that match. If Chicago does fall to Case, the Kenyon match becomes a must win. Talent wise, Chicago is better, but we all know what happens when we rely on shear talent to make predictions. Chicago wins this one in my eyes though.
They will have a couple of good regional matches against Oberlin and Depauw before heading out to California for spring break. Last season, this trip sort of saved the year for the maroons as they upset Cal Lu. Unfortunately they got wrecked by Pomona. They will take on both teams again along with Whittier. Cal Lu and Whittier should be taken care of, but Pomona will be a tough match, particularly in what will be Chicago’s first few days of outdoor tennis.
They will have some time off before another big weekend when they travel down to play Wash U, TX-Tyler, and Whitewater. Again, predicting matches that are so far away is pretty pointless, but with seeding for the UAA tournament being such an important thing with Pool C in mind, the Wash U match could be big. You can never pick against Wash U and I don’t plan on it even if Chicago came into this match undefeated (they won’t). Tyler is always a mystery as to what transfers they brought in so that’s a question mark. Sweet revenge will be had over Whitewater as I expect Chicago to annihilate them for beating them last season.
Finally, they finish the season with Gustavus and UAAs. Gustavus was hit with graduation so Chicago should be ok there, but another doubles specialty team always poses a threat. It cannot go understated how important the UAA results will be. With Pool C down to 5 spots, you can expect that only three teams from the UAA will make the tourney and one of those will be the AQ bid. Second place should be a lock as well. Third place (in my humble opinion) will be between CMU, Case, and Chicago. Obviously that has Wash U and Emory at the top two spots. By reading this preview, you can sense that I am backing Chicago to finally break through. I don’t expect Case to necessarily falter this year, but replicating last season is going to be extremely difficult. If Chicago comes in to the UAAs as the 4 or 5 seed, I am not sure they can take third place as the 4/5 match-up is a tough one to precede the semifinal.
Summing everything up, this team has all the tools to be a success. They have a couple of seniors to help guide the youngsters, depth to deal with any issues throughout the season, and the best freshman class in the country. If they can stay hungry (let the dogs eat right?), they will be a force for a long time to come. It also is fun to mention that they have an equally as good recruiting class coming in for 2016. I will be a supporter throughout the year and I truly hope they can break the trend that has become the identity of Chicago tennis. Kudos to Coach Tee if he can get it done!
This is one of the most dangerous teams in D3.
Chua has the best back hand in D3. He can hit tons of winners, but he also makes tons of errors. He is good hitting forehand cross-court to his opponent’s deep backhand corner. This often results in a weak ball that Chua would then attack using his backhand. I think the best way to play him is to change pace, spin, depth, angles… Hitting hard balls to his backhand would likely cause him to overhit. He likes to attack the balls from his shoulder height, similar to CMU’s Alla. Perhaps, mixing in some slices that stay low is a good option.
Leung wore elbow wrap at the regional. If he has a tennis elbow, he may not be able to hit a powerful forehand, his best shot. Liu is a grinding machine, while Tsai is a solid all-court player. These 4 freshmen are able to play with anybody in D3.
I think Chicago is capable of beating any team in a given day!