Krueger-Wyman and Carpeni top doubles draw

The good news is that juniors Peter Capkovic and Alex Vuckovic both reached the semifinals of the "A" singles bracket at this weekend's Farnsworth/Princeton Invitational. The bad news is that they had to play each other.

Capkovic, the No. 82 player in the nation, came out on top, 6-4, 7-5, to advance to the finals and an eventual second-place finish.

"It is always very hard to play someone you know that well and you are friends with," Capkovic said. "Alex had a great tournament and maybe could advance even further playing someone else, but I was lucky to win this time."

On the road to the all-Tiger battle, both players survived a couple of tough matches. Capkovic, after a bye in the first round, went three sets against his first two opponents. His quarterfinal opponent, Columbia's Justin Chow, put up a particularly good fight.

Though Capkovic won the first set against Chow, 6-4, he found himself down 2-5 in the second set. The Tiger responded by winning three straight games and soon forced a tiebreaker. A questionable call led to another tough situation for Capkovic, who trailed 1-4 before winning four consecutive points.

Despite Capkovic's refusal to back down, he couldn't quite pull out the tiebreaker, instead resorting to a 6-3 third set to clinch the victory.

"The Saturday match against [Chow] was a good test, from both a physical and a mental toughness standpoint for the important matches coming up later in the season," Capkovic said.

In his finals match against the No. 41 player in the nation, Raoul Schwark, Capkovic dictated the tempo of the match.

"I had all the cards in my hands," Capkovic said.

He won the first set, 7-5, but couldn't maintain the momentum, dropping the next two sets, 3-6 and 4-6.

As for Vuckovic, he won three straight-set matches and knocked off both the fourth and sixth-seeded players before falling to Capkovic. Nonetheless, he deflected attention to the doubles team of junior Alex Krueger-Wyman and sophomore George Carpeni.

"Our focus coming into the tournament ... was a lot on doubles. We wanted to make sure that we made a real push in that area," Vuckovic said. "We feel the key to our season this year is how we perform in doubles."

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In fact, the duo of Krueger-Wyman and Carpeni couldn't have done any better, as they won three matches for the championship in the "A" doubles bracket. Along the way, they beat the second-seeded team, which included singles champion Schwark.

This tournament also marked the debut of the Princeton freshmen. Notably, Ryan Kim won the consolation championship of the "A" bracket.

The freshmen women also played this weekend while their older teammates took a rest. At the Cissie Leary Invitational at Penn, Rebecca Parks dropped only two games as she won her first-round match. Sarah Hoffman was also victorious in her first match, but neither freshman could advance any further.

In women's doubles, the No. 43 national ranking belongs to a pair of Tiger freshmen; however, Taylor Marable and Parks were unable to take advantage of a first-round bye. Though they forced a tiebreaker, they couldn't capture a victory in their second-round match.

Ivy test ahead

Next weekend, the Tiger men will travel to New York for the ECAC championships where they will take on the rest of the Ivy League. The tournament will be the most significant of the fall and will measure how Princeton stacks up against its rivals.

"Good results from both this and last week give us a boost in a confidence for the next weekend," Capkovic said. "If we all stay healthy, realize our potential and have a little bit of necessary luck, I am confident that we have a good shot for the title."

Some of that luck might include avoiding matches against Princeton teammates.