It was two big wins against two top teams to finish off the Indoor National Tennis Tournament Friday and Saturday for Idaho seniors Marius Cirstea and Abid Akbar.
Philip Vukelich | Argonaut
Senior Abid Akbar strokes a forehand from the baseline at the Memorial Gym tennis courts Nov. 5. Akbar and fellow senior Marius Cirstea won two doubles matches at the National Indoor Championships last week in New York.
After a first-round loss in the main draw against a California duo, Cirstea and Akbar moved to the consolation bracket to put the disappointing loss behind them.
“We played some tough teams and it feels good to win after not such a good start,” Akbar said.
First up in consolation play for the Idaho men were Yannick Hanfmann and Eric Johnson from USC, a program that produced the last three national championship teams. Cirstea and Akbar would not be intimidated though, and defeated the duo 8-5 to advance to round two of consolation play. If round one wasn’t tough enough for them, next up were Winston Lin and Bert Vancura from the host school, Columbia University. Lin and Vancura were coming off of an 8-0 dominating victory in round one of consolation, but again the Idaho duo did not let this slow them down. Akbar said they knew they were going to be tough, but after watching them warm up they liked the matchup.
“They hit hard but one didn’t have a very big serve so we knew we could beat them,” Akbar said.
Columbia was as close to a home team as there was at the tournament, which meant they had a lot of friends and family watching in the crowd.
Idaho Director of Tennis Jeff Beaman said to have a team at nationals with such a huge crowd is unusual so Cirstea and Akbar had to play extra hard to win.
Cirstea said the crowd doesn’t really get to him and he didn’t feel the pressure. These two wins proved to him that he and Akbar are a really good team, Cirstea said.
The men responded well after their loss in the main draw and Beaman said the second win was really big for them.
“Anybody can have a day where you are on and your opponent is off, but it really proves that yesterday wasn’t just a flash in the pan,” Beaman said. “The fact that we can go out two days in a row and have big wins against top teams really shows the level that they can play.”
In the main draw match, Akbar said his serve was not 100 percent. He said it got better in the second match and he served really well in their final match, which made the game easier for him. His partner also lightened the load a bit.
“Marius on the other side was doing good returns, hitting hard, attacking, and both of us did not miss easy balls and played solid and made the most of every opportunity we got,” Akbar said.
These wins are a great way for Idaho to end the fall season, but now it’s back to the drawing board as Cirstea and Akbar saw the level they need to play at if they want to make it to the national outdoor tournament in the spring.
“We definitely are a good team that deserves to be there so I hope we can get there,” Cirstea said.
Charles Crowley can be reached at [email protected]