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Wasserman’s sweep of awards highlight Tigers’ weekend

Many of the Tigers had positive performances in the Farnsworth Invitational this weekend

Alex Rogers, Daily Prince Photographer

Two weeks ago, junior Jimmy Wasserman had a rough weekend at the Ivy Plus Invitational. This past weekend, he redeemed himself with an incredibly successful performance at the Farnsworth Invitational at the Lenz Tennis Center.  

Wasserman took home first place in both events he competed in: the B singles bracket and the C doubles bracket. He won in doubles on Saturday and followed that up with a win in singles on Sunday. After the match, Head Coach Billy Pate remarked that the team members “were very pleased” with Jimmy’s championship win. 

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Coming into Sunday’s B flight singles final, Wasserman had defeated four opponents, all in straight sets. Standing between him and the championship was Lars Schouten of Marist College. Wasserman won the first set 6-4 after fending off a late charge from Schouten. But Wasser dominated the second, and ultimately deciding, which ended in a 6-2 set victory. With the win, Wasserman was also able to avenge senior teammate Diego Vives, who was unable to compete against Schouten during the quarterfinals of the B flight bracket on Saturday due to an injury. While unable to get a Tiger vs. Tiger final, Coach Pate expressed that he was thrilled that Wasserman rebounded from the Ivy Plus Invitational with a fantastic singles performance.

All of this came after Wasserman already had earned some hardware at the Farnsworth Invitational. On Saturday, Wasserman and his teammate freshman Noah Agarwal emerged victorious from the 16-team C doubles flight. Agarwal and Wasserman were challenged by Balaji Lakshmanan and Xandy Hammit of Drexel University in the final round. The match was a nailbiter, going all the way to the decisive 15th, set where Wasserman and Agarwal won and secured the C doubles flight title; they ended with an ultimate 8-7 record. 

“Jimmy and Noah really had a great tournament in doubles in winning their flight,” noted Coach Pate. “We also had some positive singles performances from everyone playing.”

Indeed, many of the Tiger players had great performances in this past tournament, the final one before regionals. Freshman Kabir Sarita finished second in the C singles flight, and made it to the quarterfinals with Vives in the B doubles flight before cutting the match short due to Vives’ injury. Pate said on Saturday that it “appears that [Vives] will be out for a few weeks.”

Despite the injury, spirits were high among the Tiger players and coach. Pate remarked on Saturday that they’d "had a very solid two days at [their] Farnsworth event and it's been really valuable for the four guys playing to get a heavy volume of match play.” Things only got better for the Tigers on Sunday. “Overall, it was a productive weekend for us,” said Pate, adding that he hopes that everyone will be healthy and ready to play by regionals.

The Tigers won't play another match until the ITA Northeast Regional on Oct. 18. The tournament this year will be in New Haven, Conn. and will continue through the first day of midterms week. Until then, let us wish Vives a fast recovery and hope that the Tigers carry positive thoughts from the successes at Farnsworth into the next week of practice.

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