2002 CUNYAC / Hospital for Special Surgery Championship

Baruch Earns the Title Back

FLUSHING MEADOWS, NY - The Baruch College men’s tennis team capped a perfect 10-0 season with a CUNY Athletic Conference Tournament Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in the most competitive champi-onship from top-to-bottom in the 19-year history of the event. The Statesmen won with 34 points, compared to the College of Staten Island’s 31 and Hunter College’s 30 points.

Baruch won three singles titles, but the third doubles tandem of senior Chander Goel and junior Eugen Balagula sealed the win with a convincing 6-3, 6-0 win over Staten Island’s Marcel Sandougout and Francesco Sciortino. Earlier in the day senior Amir Tsekun (Brooklyn, NY), Balagula (Teaneck, NJ) and Goel (New York, NY), won the #4, #5 and #6 singles flights to put Baruch in position to win the school’s second championship in three seasons.

Goel, originally from India, became the first player in memory to win three consecutive singles titles after winning the #4 singles titles in 2000 and 2001.

“This has been the toughest tournament by far,” said Goel. “But I feel very proud of this team, I’m thrilled to win, but it is more important to me to help this team in any way to win the tournament.” His coach, Florin Giuglescu concurred, “Chander is the core of this team. He is a wise player and he sacrificed his position for the betterment of the team and he gives his time to the team without asking for anything in return.”

The number one singles final was exciting to say the least, as Brooklyn College fifth-year senior Pavan Khurana beat Baruch’s Fahad Sarwani 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 to win the flight for the third time. The 5’6 Sarwani (Edison, NJ) was up 5- 2 in the deciding set, but had his serve broken three times by Khurana (Hewlett, NY) to even the score and eventually win the match.

“I didn’t realize that I wasn’t giving my full effort until I got down 5-2 in the third, said Khurana, who has never lost a CUNY match during four seasons of action. “I am very fortunate to win this championship three times during my career. Although I would have given this one up for a team title.” Khurana was once a nationally ranked amateur, who rebounded from an ACL knee injury last season to win the #1 title for the third time (1998 & 2000).

Hunter College, a fifth-place finisher during the regular season won three flights in the championships. Fresh-man Oded Meiron (Ramat Aviv, Israel) won the #2 title topping CCNY senior Michael Kessler 6-0, 6-1. Kessler finished a his career earning at least one CUNYAC medals in each of his four seasons. As for Meiron, he later teamed with Anand Moses (Bhubaneswar, India) to win the #1 doubles championship over Staten Island’s Brian Wendleton (Blue Springs, MO) and Mourad Mourad. The Hawks #2 doubles team of Vince Salmonson (Astoria, NY) and Richard Abraham (Toronto, Canada) also won the finale, topping CCNY’s Joe Phillip (Elmont, NY) and John Gomez (Queens, NY) 6-2, 6-3.

Despite the school’s second place finish, Staten Island failed to win a singles or doubles title for the first time in ten seasons, coming up short in four finales (two singles, two doubles). Mourad (Staten Island, NY) was the only Dolphin to reach two finals, losing to Brooklyn freshman Kevin Allicock, a native of Guyana, in the final at #3, 5-7, 6- 3, 6-0. It marks the third consecutive year that Brooklyn has won the first and third singles championships.

“The league has improved tremendously from two years ago,” said Balagula, who was a finalist in 2000. “The tone of the entire championship was super. Every team, especially ours, has strong team spirit and that was reflected in everyone’s play.”

Brooklyn, the second place finisher during the regular season placed fourth with 27 points, followed by CCNY (23), John Jay (15) and Lehman (15), York (12) and NY City Tech (1).