A Summer to Remember

William Baumann, a 2011 junior program graduate, 

had an impressive run of 5 tournament titles in the summer.

Juniors Alumni  |  Since winning his first title of the season in early July, see "Willy's Game Keeps Moving Forward", William Baumann went on an incredible run of tournament titles to finish his 2015 season on a high note. After the success of the Burnaby Open where he won the men's 4.0 singles title, he went on to win three more singles titles and a doubles title. The only hiccup he had was at the Stanley Park Open. He played in the 4.5 singles category. He managed to get to the quarter-final round after beating two players in his previous matches. The third seeded player Pho Nguyen stopped him with 7-6, 3-6, 6-2 match outcome.

At the Coquitlam Open, he played in both the 4.0 and 4.5 singles events. He was seeded number one in the 4.0 event due to his recent results at the Burnaby Open. He won all five rounds in this event but it was not a straight forward run to the title. He was taken to three sets in the quarter-finals and semi-finals. He beat the eight seed Andrew Van Gaans 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 and then had a 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 victory over Joe Guiotto. Finally he beat Jason Sunaryo, seeded No. 5, 6-0, 6-4 to win the event.

In the 4.5 event, he defeated the fifth seed, third seed and the top seed to get to the final. His first round match against Joel Milne went three sets and he won the match 7-6, 3-6, 7-6. His victories over the seeded players were 6-2, 6-3 against No. 5 seed Patrick Caffrey, 6-4, 6-2 against No. 3 Greg Rash, and 6-3, 6-2 over No. 1 seed Daniel Dziarmaga. The final was won over Leo Tang in three sets 7-5, 2-6, 6-3.

In the same 4.5 singles draw, other former juniors were Steven Shen (2014), lost his semi-finals match to Leo Tang, Marcin Walenczykiewicz (2008), lost the second round to Rash, and Ken Chang (2011), also lost in the second round to the fifth seed Greg Davis.

Over in the Men's Open singles level, Alexander Baumann (2013) managed to put in a good performance despite the lack of match practice. He beat Michal Suchanek in his first match 6-2, 6-2, and faced the the third seed Peter Sowinski in the quarter-finals. After taking the first set 6-3, and serving at 5-2 and 5-4 and had two match points, he could not wrap up the match and lost the second set 7-6. The match was over after he lost the third set 6-3. Riley Friend, who is still a current junior but is limited by the tournament rules to enter only in the 5.0 or Open level events, played one of his best tennis against his opponent Greg Davis. Friend battle hard against Davis in a match that lasted 2.5 hours long and a score of 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

After the Coquitlam Open, it was a road trip to Whistler for the Fall Classic tournament with Shen, Mark Lintott (2012), Walenczykiewicz and his brothers Alexander and Gerhard. In the 5.0 singles event, William was seeded No. 1 and he managed to beat Alexander 7-5, 6-4 in the semi-finals before taking down the second seed Brian Fung 7-5, 6-4 as well. Both Walenczykiewicz and Lintott won their first round matches in the 4.0 singles event. Lintott moved past his quarter-finals match against the No. 3 seed Philippe riendeau 6-2, 7-5, but Walenczykiewicz was not so lucky against the No. 2 seed Tony Leyland. He lost 6-2, 6-4. In the semi-finals, Lintott took the No. 1 seed Jamie Conway to three sets but lost a third set 10-8 super-tiebreaker.

All six players teamed up for the doubles event. Lintott and Walenczykiewicz faltered early. Alexander and Gerhard seeded No. 1 lost in the semi-finals in a 10-8 third set super-tiebreak decision to Darcy Lawrence and Allan Lawry. William and Shen seeded No. 2 won the title over Lawrence and Lawry 6-2, 6-3. They beat two other teams to reach the finals.

By the end of this road trip, William chalked up 21-1 in his singles matches, winning four consecutive tournament titles (3 singles and 1 doubles) along the way for a total of five titles. He ended up ranked as high as No. 1 in BC and Canada in the 4.0 singles category, as well as No. 5 in BC and No. 13 in Canada in the 4.5 singles category. Well done!