Tennis tourney comes to town, Broncos take part

By Cecile Nguyen

Six Broncos played in the 2009 SAP Open pre-qualifying round last week at the Los Gatos Swim and Racquet Club.

Assistant coach Jakub Cech, redshirt junior Tommy Hicks, redshirt senior Brian Brogan, junior Jay Wong, redshirt senior Senthil Chidambaram and freshman Kyle Dandan all played in the pre-qualifying round.

Hicks and Cech advanced the furthest, with both players making it all the way to the round of 16, two rounds short of the pre-qualifying finals.

No. 5 Bijan Hejazi defeated Hicks in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3.

Hicks redshirted last year following a wrist injury and did not pick up a racket for nine months.

The SAP Open was his first tournament in over a year following wrist surgery.

"Opening a can of balls, playing an opponent you don't know and the pressure to actually make balls that you can win; it's a whole lot different than going out here (at Santa Clara) and just playing a practice match," he said.

Hicks did not lose a set prior to his loss against his friend, Hejazi.

Hicks swept both of his prior opponents in straight sets with a score of 6-0, 6-0 in his first two matches.

"I just wanted to enter it and get some matches in," said the Portland, Ore., native.

In his SAP Open debut, Hicks ran into a little bit of trouble with Spencer Talmadge in the round of 32, but ultimately defeated him 6-4, 6-2.

"The competition was really good this year," said Hicks. "A lot of guys that are good college players and also you have a lot of the minor league guys in there as well."

Playing in his first SAP Open tournament, Cech was eliminated by eventual pre-qualifying winner and No. 1 seed Chris Wettengel by a score of 6-2, 6-4.

Cech eliminated his own player, No. 9 Brian Brogan, 6-7(3), 6-1, 6-1 in the round of 64.

"It was interesting," Cech said of playing one of his Santa Clara players. "I knew him from practice, so I knew what I was going to expect."

Brogan agreed that Cech's familiarity with his game gave the assistant coach an edge.

"He coaches me every day and knows my weaknesses and my strengths," said Brogan. "I think that helped give him an advantage this time."

Brogan made it all the way through the pre-qualifying round of the SAP Open to the qualifying round two years ago.

The SAP Open is the second-longest running tennis tournament in the United States behind only the U.S. Open. It began in 1889 and predates both the Australian Open and the French Open.

The way the tournament is set up, players must win the pre-qualifier to earn one of two wild card spots in the qualifying round, which includes a pool of international players, as opposed to the pre-qualifying round, which is made up of exclusively domestic players.

After a series of three rounds, the winners of the qualifying rounds then are matched up against the top players in the SAP Open, including the likes of Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt.

Though Brogan made it to the qualifying round in 2007, he had to drop out of the competition when the Santa Clara tennis team had a scheduled road trip at the same time as his individual SAP Open match.

"It could have been a great individual opportunity," said Brogan. "But in the end, you always got to choose the team and the people around you above yourself."

This year was a different story for Brogan, who has been sitting out this season with a medical redshirt.

A lack of preparation and one of the most competitive tournament pools in the last 10 years led to an early exit in the second round this year, Brogan said.

His teammate Wong made it to the round of eight of the pre-qualifying tournament last year and was two wins shy of becoming the second Santa Clara player to reach the qualifying tournament since Brogan accomplished the feat in 2007.

Wong said the SAP Open pre-qualfiying round was especially tough this year.

"I haven't played a tournament in a while, and it's kind of weird at first because I wasn't used to it," Wong said.

The Cupertino, Calif., native received a bye in the first round and defeated Reg Rivera of Pleasanton, Calif., 6-1, 6-1.

Wong was upset in the round of 32 when Sky Lovill of Fairfax, Calif., defeated the No. 5-seeded Bronco 6-1, 6-4.

Fellow Santa Clara player Chidambaram had a rough start to his pre-qualifying match in the round of 128.

He fell 0-6 in the first set, but battled back to win 6-3 in the second set and ended up winning the third set in a tiebreaker 7-6 (4).

Chidambaram won his second match of the tournament more easily, defeating his opponent 6-1, 6-0. The Sunnyvale, Calif., native lost 6-3, 6-1 in the round of 32.

Dandan won his first match easily 6-1, 6-0 in the round of 128 and defeated Eric Gast of Saratoga, Calif., 6-4, 6-3 in the round of 64.

No. 5 Hejazi swept Dandan 6-4, 6-0. Hejazi went on to defeat Dandan's teammate Hicks in the next round.

Matthew Cucuzza, Gabe Taylor and Kurt Wagner contributed to this report. Contact Cecile Nguyen at (408) 551-1918 or sports@thesantaclara.com.