Watts Wins ITA Regional Singles Title For Fourth-Straight Year

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St. Louis, Mo., September 28, 2009 – The Washington University in St. Louis men’s tennis team swept both the singles and doubles flights at the 2009 Wilson/Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Central Region Singles Championship, held Friday-Monday, Sept. 25-28, at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center in St. Louis, Mo.

Senior John Watts captured his fourth-consecutive regional singles championship with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over No. 3 seed Tomas Piskacek of Kenyon College. Watts is 28-0 all-time in singles at the ITA Central Regional and dropped just one set.

Juniors Isaac Stein and Max Woods completed the sweep for Washington University by capturing the doubles championship with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over No. 2 seed Will Gates and Scott Sandager of DePauw University. Stein and Woods, the top seed in the 64-team field, lost in last year’s final to Charlie Cutler and Chris Hoeland in an all Washington U. final.

Watts, the No. 1 seed and fourth-ranked player in Division III, won all seven-matches in straight sets and defeated five seeds en route to the title. He defeated No. 17 seed Will Palmer (Transylvania), 6-1, 6-0, in the round of 32, No. 17 seed Will Gates (DePauw), 6-3, 6-2, in the round of 16, No. 5 seed Sam Sweeney (North Central), 7-5, 6-0, in the quarterfinals, No. 14 seed Adam Putterman (Washington University), 6-1, 6-4 in the semifinals, and Piskacek in the title match.

In doubles, Stein and Woods cruised into the quarterfinals with a pair of 8-2 victories in the opening two rounds. Their toughest test might have been in the round of 16, when the duo pulled through for a 9-7 victory over No. 12 seed Andrew Kahn and Michael Randon of DePauw University. An 8-5 victory over No. 7 seed Tomas Piskacek and Jeremy Polster of Kenyon College and an 8-6 win over Patrick Boyd and Cyrus Jadun of Kalamazoo College advanced the duo into its second-consecutive championship match.

WU advanced five players to the round of 16 in the 128-singles draw. Putterman ousted two seeds, including No. 6 seed Max Woods in the quarterfinals (7-6, 3-6, 7-6), before falling to Watts in the semifinals. Woods also had a nice showing in singles, defeating a pair of No. 17 seeds in Jonathan Alexander of the University of Chicago (6-2, 1-6, 7-6) and freshman Gary Parizher of Washington University (7-6, 3-6, 7-6), en route to the quarters. Senior Danny Levy dropped a three-set decision to No. 2 seed Will Zhang of the University of Chicago, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, to end his run in the round of 16.

The Bears fared just as well in doubles with three teams reaching the quarterfinals. Watts and freshman Kareem Farah, the No. 5 seed, won three matches before falling to No. 3 seed Tyler Cempre and Nate Hobrath of Denison University, 8-6. Putterman teamed with sophomore Dushyanth Srinivasan for a 9-8 win over No. 9 seed Jonathan Alexander and Troy Brinker of the University in the round of 16 before falling to No. 4 seed Patrick Boyd and Cyrus Jadun of Kalamazoo College, 8-5. All four top seeds reached the semifinals in doubles.

Sophomore Cameron Chiang rebounded from a loss in the first round to win six straight matches to claim the consolation singles title. In the St. Louis Collegiate draw, freshman Zach Sarnoff won five matches in straight sets to capture the singles title. In the ITA doubles consolation, it was an all Washington U. final between freshman Bryan Haywood and senior Corey Yealy, and the team of senior Slavi Fildish and Parizher. The match was not played due to classes on Monday. The Bears completed the sweep as Sarnoff and junior David Zhu won the St. Louis Collegiate doubles title.

Watts, along with the doubles team of Stein and Woods, advance to the ITA National Small College Championships, held on Thursday-Sunday, Oct. 15-18, at the Copeland-Cox Tennis Center in Mobile, Ala. Watts was the 2007 ITA Division III champion and placed third in 2006 and 2008.