Warburg wins, Warburg wins, (April 28, 2004)joins Cardinal tennis elite

by Rick Eymer

Sam Warburg took his place among the Who's Who of Stanford men's tennis when he became the ninth Cardinal to win a Pac-10 individual singles title since the tournament began in 1987, and the first since Geoff Abrams in 2000.

Warburg, ranked 11th in the nation, defeated USC's Adriano Biaselia, 7-6, 6-3, on Sunday in Ojai in the championship match. Biaselia, the Trojans' top player, is ranked 31st.

Warburg, who played at No. 1 singles in 18 of Stanford's 24 matches during the regular season, defeated Biaselia in three sets during a dual meet the previous week.

Sophomores KC Corkery and Menlo School grad James Pade reached the championship match before falling to UCLA's Philipp Gruendler and Luben Pampoulov, 8-3.

Warburg, who improved to 28-7 overall by sweeping through the individual tournament, will return to action on May 15, when the NCAA team tournament begins. Stanford will likely host the first two rounds of play.

Warburg advanced to the finals with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over UCLA's Chris Lam, who played at No. 3 singles for the Bruins.

Corkery and Pade defeated Arizona State's Jonathan Kinsella and Chris Stewart, 8-5, in the semifinals.

In singles invitational action, senior captain Carter Morris advanced to the finals before losing to UCLA's Chris Surapol, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

In the invitational doubles, Phil Sheng and James Wan won the all-Stanford matchup, 8-5, over Eric McKean and Chris Rasmussen.

Wan, playing anywhere from No. 3 to No. 6 singles, compiled a 23-1 dual meet mark (27-4 overall), which ranks him sixth on the all-time single-season list with a .958 winning percentage. His only loss, which prevented him from becoming just the fourth Cardinal to record an unbeaten season, came at UCLA against Lam last week.

On the women's side, Alice Barnes reached the championship final in the main singles draw before losing to Cal's Raquel Kops-Jones, who spent time as the nation's top-ranked player this season.

Stanford freshman Anne Yelsey won the invitational singles title, beating Cal's Jessica Shu, 6-0, 6-1.

The nation's top-ranked doubles team of Barnes and Erin Burdette won the doubles main draw title, Theresa Logar and Story Tweedie-Yates took the invitational doubles title.

Amber Liu, the defending NCAA singles champion and Stanford's No.1 player, did not participate.

Top-ranked Stanford returns to action on May 14, hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament.

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