Williams wins Farnsworth Invitational

It was not supposed to be an intrasquad tournament.

It just turned out that way.

The singles competition at the 33rd Annual Farnsworth Invitational this past weekend was dominated by Tigers, as men's tennis placed three of its own in the semifinals and two in the finals.

In the final match, senior Judson Williams defeated his roommate, senior Darren Joe, 6-2, 7-5 to take the individual title. Williams becomes the first Tiger to capture the crown since Kyle Kliegerman '01 in 1999.

"It was weird. We slept in the same room the night before and weren't really acknowledging that we were playing each other until about 30 minutes before the match," Williams said. "But we didn't say a word during the match. We both wanted the trophy."

Princeton's opponents in the tournament included top players from Rutgers, Temple, St. Joseph's, and Ivy League rivals Columbia, Penn and Yale.

But the brackets quickly rid themselves of Lions,Elis and Owls and became choked with Tigers. Six of the 10 Princeton players entered in the tournament made it out of the first round of 32, and four moved on to the quarterfinals. One of those who advanced to round 1 but failed to make it to the third round, 5-seeded Tim Kofol, was defeated by teammate and eventual-finalist Joe.

Tigers continued to prey on their own in the quarterfinals, as top-seeded Williams took out junior Trevor Smith on his way to the semifinals, 6-4, 7-6.

In the meantime, other Princetonians were locking up more spots in the semifinals, as Daniel Friedman came back from down a set to oust fourth-seeded Ryan Harwood of Penn, 2-6, 7-5, 6-2. Joe made it a three-Tiger seminfinal by defeating Chris Shackelton of Yale, 6-3, 7-6 (2).

The fourth spot in the semifinals was taken by Rajeev Emany of Columbia, who defeated freshman Scott Stewart in the second round and third-seeded Fanda Stejskal of Penn in the quarterfinals.

The lone Lion Emany and Princeton's Joe faced off in the semifinals, where Joe took the first set 6-3, dropped the second 4-6, and advanced to the finals with a 6-2 third set.

Meanwhile Williams was facing a teammate for the second straight round, and earned the right to make it three straight by advancing to the finals with a 6-0, 6-4 win over Friedman. Williams then defeated the unseeded Joe to take the championship.

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"[Facing all his teammates] was not a lot of fun, but it was great because it means we're dominating the bracket," Williams said.

Even the Tigers who lost in the first round of the regular draw wound up having success. Senior Nick Benjamin was up a break in the third set on 2-seed Oscar Chow, but barely missed moving on after a series of deuces went Chow's way.

Junior Brian Nachtigall, who was bounced in the regular draw by third-seeded Stejskal of Penn, won five straight matches to take the consolation championship.

In keeping with the tone of the tournament, the doubles competition also turned out well for the Tigers, though it was not the dominating perfomance of the singles competition.

The third-seeded team of Kofol and Williams reached the semifinals, where they were defeated by Penn's David Lynn and Stejskal, 8-6.

Hendrick Chasse and Friedman were Princeton's other representative in the semifinals, where they lost to eventual-champions Shackelton and Ryan Coyle of Yale, 8-6.