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!

Triumphant at Burnaby Open!

Willy's Game Keeps Moving Forward

Junior Alumni  |  William Baumann, a 2011 junior program graduate, continues to get his tennis game moving forward. At the recent Burnaby Open, Baumann participated in the 4.0 singles event as an unseeded player. After beating Alex Feshchenko 7-6, 6-4 in his first match, Baumann defeated four seeded players in succession to win the title. He swept aside No. 2 seed Massimilano Pellizzaro 6-3, 6-1 in his next match. He beat Sebastien Lachat, No. 5 seed, 6-4, 6-3 in the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals, he stopped No. 7 seed Jason Staples from moving forward in three sets 7-5, 3-6, 6-2. In the finals, Baumann defeated Michael Curtis, No. 3 seed, 6-4, 6-3 to claim the title.

Baumann continues his winning streak for another couple of matches when he entered in the popular Stanley Park tournament. Playing in the 4.5 singles category, he fought through his first match against Diego Osvaldo Bedoya 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. He followed up another match win against Zhoujie Jiang, demolishing his opponent 6-0, 6-1. After seven consecutive match wins, his streak was halted when he faced the No. 3 seed Pho Nguyen in the round of 16. After losing the first set in the tie-break, Baumann took the second set 6-3, but faltered in the third 6-2.

After putting in a great performance at the Burnaby Open, he will have accumulated enough points to push his ranking into the provincial top 10 once his results are updated in the system.

Defending Men's Club Singles Champion Repeats Win

Juniors Alumni: Mo Herar Club Tournament  |  This year's adult club tournament was held in memorial of Mo Herar who had passed away earlier in spring. Mo Herar's son Pami presented the trophies at the recent Awards+Banquet event.  Pami was a past club champion for a couple of years. He won the boys under 18 singles titles back in 1990 and 1991 and was also a doubles winner in 1990 with his doubles partner Sherman Hu.

Two of the Baumann brothers, Alexander and William, took the time to participate in this season ending tournament. They were joined in this tournament by Grant Mcrae (1992), Pami Herar (1991), Julie Wong (1999) and Carla Byers (1997). Once again, Alexander Baumann nailed down another title victory performance. Seeded number one, he found his toughest match in the finals against the second seed Michal Smid. After falling behind early in the first set he lost the set 5-7. He regained his stride in the second set and won it 6-3. Smid put up a fight early in the third set, but still found himself behind and Baumann broke his service game twice to wrap the match up 6-3. Baumann has also won the Coquitlam Open tournament in May and was part of the men's league team that won both the division title and the Miele Provincial Championships. He was ranked as high as No. 2 in the 4.5 singles in BC and also attained a high of No. 4 ranking in Canada. National rankings are based on a 52 weeks rolling basis.

William Baumann made the semi-finals for the second year in a row. In the quarter-finals, he was up against Pami Herar. He defeated the number four seed 7-6, 1-6, 6-1. In the semi-finals the older Baumann secured the first set with a 6-4 score against Smid. But he lost his focus for the rest of the match and Smid used it to his advantage and stepped up his game and powered on for a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 win. Seeded number one in the women's singles Julie Wong, last year's runner-up in this event, narrowly defeated Masae Lau 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 in the semi-finals. In the finals, she fell to the second seed Stephanie Bird 6-0, 4-6, 6-2. 

Grant Mcrae and his doubles partner Denny Permana lived up to their top seeding to win the men's doubles event. However, they needed three sets to beat Jasper Li and Michael Xiao 3-6, 6-0, 6-2. Over on the women's side, the top seeded team of Carla Byers and her doubles partner Alicia Tsui lost out on the doubles title to the second seeded team of Heather Coxell and Trish Mandewo 7-6, 6-2.

In a League of Our Own

Juniors Alumni: Men's League  |  A winning season for former junior program members. Miele Men's Spring League B2 (Lower Mainland) division winners and Miele Provincial Team Champions!

From left to right: Stephan Witijono, Ceday Tetik, Mark Lintott,
William Baumann, Alexander Baumann (2nd Vice Captain),
Douglas Navas, Adrian Tan
Absent: Gerhard Baumann (Captain), Daniel Shen (1st Vice Captain),
Marcin Walenczykiewicz

At the Miele Celebration of Champions

The Young Guns Did It!

Juniors Alumni: Men's League | After winning the division B2 title in the Lower Mainland Men's Spring League at end of June, this team of former CTC juniors went on to a convincing victory in the Miele Provincial Team Tennis Championships this past weekend in Kelowna. Facing teams from across BC, The Young Guns played with their hearts to go 11-1 match wins at the five teams round-robin playoffs. In the finals, they put on a show of determination and focus to defeat their arch rival from the Tsawwassen Tennis Club 3-0. 

In the final, Alexander Baumann romped through his match 6-2, 6-0. The first doubles team of Ceday Tetik and William Baumann was trailing throughout the first set, but managed to claim victory in their match with a score of 7-6, 6-3. The second doubles team of Stephan Witijono and Daniel Shen fought off a strong challenge from their opponents before taking their match 7-6, 6-4. 

This capped a third appearance at the Miele Provincial Team Tennis Championships for The Young Guns in five years. The team came in 3rd place in 2009 and 2nd place last year.

The Young Guns 11-1 round-robin victories:

3-0 win against Kiss My Ace

– Alexander Baumann, Ceday Tetik/William Baumann, Gerhard Baumann/Daniel Shen

3-0 win against Tsawwassen B2 (won singles and #2 doubles in a third set super-tiebreak)

– Alexander Baumann, Ceday Tetik/William Baumann, Stephan Witijono/Daniel Shen

3-0 win against OK

– Marcin Walenczykiewicz, Ceday Tetik/William Baumann, Gerhard Baumann/Daniel Shen

2-1 win against String Theory (lost #2 doubles in a third set super-tiebreak)

– Marcin Walenczykiewicz, Ceday Tetik/William Baumann, Gerhard Baumann/Mark Lintott

TOP PHOTO Top Row Left to Right:   Ceday Tetik (2012), Mark Lintott (2012), William Baumann (2011),  Daniel Shen (2012) Bottom Row Left to Right:   Douglas Navas (1999), Marcin Walenczykiewicz (2008),  Alexander Baumann (2013), Stephan Witijono (2001)  Gerhard Baumann

TOP PHOTO

Top Row Left to Right:  

Ceday Tetik (2012), Mark Lintott (2012), William Baumann (2011), 

Daniel Shen (2012)

Bottom Row Left to Right:  

Douglas Navas (1999), Marcin Walenczykiewicz (2008), 

Alexander Baumann (2013), Stephan Witijono (2001) 

Gerhard Baumann

Still Making Waves

Coquitlam Open  |  The Coquitlam Tennis Club recently hosted the first adult open tournament of the season. The 21st Coquitlam Open is part of the BC Summer Series and over a period of ten days, 266 players fought hard to get to the top of their respective events. Out of the eighteen finals, the CTC members did very well in winning eight titles plus a further two finals and five semi-final appearances.

One of the title winner is none other than our former club junior graduated from last year program. Alexander Baumann battled his way through the 32 players draw to take the men's 4.5 singles event. This latest victory for Baumann capped his 30th title in 40 finals. He chalked up another semi-final appearance in the men's 4.5 doubles event, partnering Jedi Tetik who graduated from the junior program in 2012. Tetik won the men's 4.5 singles event in this tournament last year and was ineligible to enter in the same event this year. While Tetik made it past the first round in the men's 5.0 singles event, Baumann lost in the first round.

Alexander older brother William made it to the second round of the men's 4.5 singles event and lost his match in three sets. Another former graduate from 2012 Mark Lintott made it to the second round of the men's 4.0 64 players singles draw.

After this tournament, Alexander Baumann's ranking in the men's 4.5 singles has zoomed up from No. 21 to No. 3 in the province, and to No. 7 in Canada. William Baumann moved onto the No. 44 ranking. He is still ranked No. 18 in the men's 4.0 singles in BC and No. 52 nationally. Mark Lintott improved his rankings to No. 18 in BC and No. 23 in Canada in the men's 3.5 and No. 37 in BC in the men's 4.0. Tetik makes his appearance at No. 38 in the 5.0 singles. Both Jedi and Alexander are ranked No. 39 provincially in the doubles after one tournament.

Big Brother vs Little Brother: The Story Continues...

Who would have thought after four official match ups between these two Baumann brothers that their story would continue beyond the junior tournaments? The last time Alexander and William competed against each other was at the Whistler Junior Fall Champs Classic tournament in 2011. That tournament was William's final junior tournament and their match-up was the final match in the boys under 18 doubles event and was considered the final chapter between the two. Fast forward to 2013, two years later. Official match ups number five and six occurred within eight days of each other. What are the chances of number five and six coming so close together?

CTC Johan Memorial Club Closed Tournament

Match up number five was setup at the club closed men singles event in early September. Alexander was seeded No.5 and William was seeded No. 7. Both were placed in the bottom half of the draw. Before their semi-final match, both had to played the No. 3 and No. 2 seeded players respectively. Alexander had little trouble disposing of Simon Cooper 6-1, 6-1 and William beat out Dale Nguyen 6-4, 7-6. A surprised win for William as Nguyen was expected to triumph in that match. William knew his younger brother was now at a higher level than when they last met at the Whistler tournament, but he was still determined to pull a rabbit out of the hat. Alas that did not happen as Alexander held command of the match and coasted to a 6-4, 6-1 victory. This put him at 4-1 head to head lead.

In the men's singles final, he faced the top seed Karim Fakim. Right from the start the match see-sawed back and forth between the two players. Baumann won the first set 7-5 after failing to convert multiple set points at 5-4. At 3-3 in the second set he lost focus and gave away three easy games to Fakim. At one set a piece, the third set was just back and forth between the two. Late in the set, Baumann found himself down 4-5 but saved a couple of match points and levelled the set at 5 games all. He held serve to go up 6-5 and put the pressure on Fakim's service game. Baumann had his first match point, but Fakim saved it. On the second match point and after three hours and five minutes the fight went out on Fakim when his down the line forehand went wide. The final score was a 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 victory that sealed Baumann status as CTC best for this year.

Whistler Fall Classic Tournament

Now fast forward again to eight days later. This Whistler road trip brought out these two Baumann brothers and another past junior Mark Lintott. A fourth person, Jedi Tetik, pulled out at the last moment. Lintott and Tetik graduated from the junior ranks last year. Alexander entered in the men's 4.5 singles event, and William signed up for both the 4.5 and 4.0 men's events. Lintott had also registered in two events, the men's 4.0 and 3.5 singles. In a space of 50 hours, Lintott played seven matches, while William finished six.

The sixth match up between these two brothers came in the semi-final of the men's 4.5 singles event. William battled past Jamie Conway 6-4, 7-6 in his quarter-final match while the No. 2 seed Alexander had an easier time beating Michal Suchanek 6-1, 6-3. In their semi-final encounter William had little answer to his younger brother's game. His mobility was hampered by his lower back problem. Alexander raced to 6-0, 5-0 lead before conceded two games. This added another win to the head to head contest, which is now 5-1 in the younger brother's favour.

In the final, Alexander was up against the number one seed, Leo Tang. These two met twice before with Tang winning both times. The last time they played was a little more than a year ago in Victoria. On that day Baumann had already chalked up 7.5 hours of match play in 10 hours. Facing Tang in his fourth match of that day, he still gave a good fight before tailing off 6-4, 6-2. Now this time there was a sense of real confidence in Alexander. He knew he was in a better position to get through this match. The tone of the match was set at the beginning. They traded hard hitting ground strokes and both were aggressive in coming to the net. Despite getting his early break, he was broken back and fell 2-3 before holding serve and breaking again. At 4-3 he moved on to win the first set. After leading early for a 2-0 and 3-2 lead, he fell to 3-5 before tying at 5-5. Tang moved up yet again to try to setup a third set. Alexander fought back to force a tie-breaker instead. The first point went to Tang in the tie-breaker but Baumann turned the heat on to lead 5-1 before ending it at 7-3 and his title victory.

With a semi-final appearance in the 4.5 singles event in the bag, William turned to his 4.0 event and made sure his focus was spot on in the 4.0 semi-final. He beat Ryo Shigeoka 6-4, 6-2. Shigeoka had beaten the second seed the match before. In the final, Baumann made no apology with his 6-1, 6-2 win over Kelly Lendvoy who had beaten the top seed in the quarter-final.

The other 4.0 semi-final saw Lintott losing to Lendvoy 6-4, 6-3. Lintott had to battle past two three set matches to get to the semi-final. In the 3.5 event, Lintott had to work his way through to the final as well. He had a three set match against the second seed John Hylton-Foster in the first round, and a tough 7-6, 7-5 in the quarter-final against Greg Gladwell. Rob Mcquaid was his semi-final opponent who he beat 6-2, 6-2. The setup in the final was against the number one seed Gordon Sung. After winning the first set easily 6-1, he lost the second by the same score. The third set saw Lintott moving up to a 4-1 lead before giving up three games in a row. At 4-4 he quickly closed the window on Sung come back momentum. The next two games were hard fought but he came through to win the set and match and his first ever singles title of his career.

With the rain started in the mid afternoon and all outdoor matches moved indoor, Lintott's match was the last of our group's three finals to be completed. It was now late on Sunday evening and with the rain pouring down, the drive back to Tri-cities was a bit more cautious. A dinner break at 9:30 pm to feed our hungry stomachs before we set off home. After William came through with his 4.0 singles victory, there was a brief talk of a possible triple crowning glory for the group. That thought was quickly dismissed as the other two yet to be played finals were against the top seeds. Who knew we would be going home with triple crowns?

William vs Alexander Head to Head Line-up

0-1: Junior Spring Break 2010
       Boys' U18 doubles semi-final – Alexander/Steven won 5-7, 7-6 ret
1-1: Coquitlam Junior Spring Challenger 2010
       Boys' U18 singles final –  William won 6-2, 6-4
1-2: Coquitlam Junior Spring Challenger 2011
       Boys' U18 singles final – Alexander won 6-4, 6-2
1-3: Whistler Junior Fall Champs Classic 2011
       Boys' U18 doubles final – Alexander/Steven won 8-5
1-4: CTC Johan Memorial Club Closed 2013
       Men singles semi-final – Alexander won 6-4, 6-1
1-5: Whistler Fall Classic 2013
       Men's 4.5 singles semi-final – Alexander won 6-0, 6-2

A Tough Season

Juniors Alumni  |  After topping our group and winning the men's league spring C1 division last year, our team was promoted to B2. And this division turned out to be much tougher than we had expected. Also the team was plagued with work situations where on most game days, we could not field our best line-up to compete against our opponents in our group. The weather in the spring did not help at all. The rain had forced so many games to be rescheduled towards the end of the season. At the half way mark of the season, we did not even complete 25 percent of our schedule. At the end, we had to schedule a number of double header games in order to finish the season on time. After a promising start, it was a struggle as the season went on. At one stage we were heading down to the bottom of the table. But we were lucky enough to crawl our way to a decent finish. At the end we could do no worse than fourth in the group table.

The new season is only five months away, and training will soon be underway after the new year. Hopefully, with the addition of two newly promoted juniors, the team will be strengthened enough to compete at this B2 level.

Standing Left to Right: Normann Baumann, James Stretcher,
Ilya Tihanenoks, Jordan Jung, Alex Khalajadez, Robbie Baumann,
Chris Weingand (Captain), Gareth Wheatley
Front: Alex Tan, Adrian Tan (Coach)
Reserve Players (not in picture): Ken Liu, Martin Walenczykiewicz

The Day The Dream Died

Juniors Alumni | After winning their division in the Tennis BC Spring League last month, the men's league team made the Meile Cup Regionals (Western Canadian). This tournament was held at the Burnaby Central Park tennis facility on the July 2nd to 4th weekend. Our men's team was looking forward to playing this regionals for a chance at the Meile Cup National Championships in Toronto in early August. The day started on Saturday with a comfortable 3-0 win in our first team-tie. In our second team-tie, the team faced a more formidable opponent from Tsawwassen. Martin Walenczykiewicz won his singles match 6-3, 7-5, but we lost our number two doubles match. Ken Liu and Jas Gill went down rather easily in 6-2, 6-3 score. Our number one doubles team started off well. Leading 4-0 in the first set, things went sideways for then on. Chris Weingand and Ilya Tihanenok battled hard but could not regained the lead and eventually lost 7-5, 7-5. Having lost this team-tie 1-2, our dream to Toronto went down with it.

The next day, our team faced the team from Salmon Arms for a third and fourth placing. Our team played with a reshuffled line up from the day before. Our number one doubles team claimed the only victory in three sets. Having lost the first set 5-7, Chris Weingand and Robbie Baumann found themselves down 3-5 in the second. They already knew our number two doubles team had lost their match only minutes before on the tennis court beside them. Weingand and Baumann put everything they had to keep the team-tie alive. They climbed back to tied the set at 5-5 and again at 6-6. A hard fought tie-breaker ended in their favour. The third set was all theirs to take. Leading 5-0 in the third set, they lost the only game. Jas Gill and Alex Tan lost the second doubles match with a score of 5-7, 4-6. Martin Walenczykiewicz was perfect all season in his singles matches. But that streak came to an end. After winning the first set 6-3, he went down in the next two sets and lost the match 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.

What a heart breaking weekend for the team. Our team was picked by the organizers to win this tournament. In the end the Toronto trip went to the team from the Sunshine Coast (Team Rawson).

Life After Junior Tennis

Juniors Alumni | Last December the opportunity to form the club's new men's league team for the Tennis BC Spring League came about. I took this chance and rounded up a few of the club's previous junior program members who had left the junior ranks. I have also added a couple of new faces to the newly formed team. The average age of our 10 member team is 21 years old. A young team but nevertheless eager to continue their competitive tennis in a team environment. The team was slotted in the men's C1 division, and was assigned to the red group. After weeks of indoor practices over the winter, we were ready enough to compete as a team.

I was not sure how we would stacked up against the other teams in our group. But in between all the rainouts we had through spring, our team managed to win 4 ties and draw 4 ties against the other teams in our red group. This was good enough to put us at the top of the table with a 68.8% winning percentage, having won 22 of our 32 matches. We also won 47 sets versus 27 sets lost. One of our main competition is from the Tsawwassen Tennis Club. They followed closely behind in second place with 20 matches won. The White Rock Tennis Club finished third in our table with 18 matches won.

Last Sunday at the Sunshine Hills Tennis Club, our team faced the division C1 blue group winner, Capilano Tennis Club, for the division title. What is at stake is more than the division title, but a chance to compete in the Miele Cup Regionals (Western Canadian) from July 2 to July 4 in Burnaby. Winning this Miele Cup Regionals (Western Canadian) will mean a trip to the Miele Cup National Championships in Toronto, which is held at the same venue and at the same time as the Rogers Cup (Canadian Open) tournament. The ladies' division will move on to Montreal to compete in their Miele Cup National Championships. All this is new. This is the first year a national championships is being held for league players across the country. This year our division was chosen for a test run for logistic reason and the other divisions will be included the following year.

By noon on Sunday, our team has secured a spot in the Miele Cup Regionals (Western Canadian). We have beaten the Capilano team by a score of 3-1. Marcin Walenczykiewicz won his singles match 6-2, 6-3. Chris Weingand and Ilya Tihanenoks won 6-2, 6-1 for our first doubles team. Our second doubles team lost a closely contested match. Jared Dawson and Alex Tan lost in a third set tiebreaker. The match score was 6-4, 4-6, 10-5. We secured our final point when Jasdev Gill and Ken Liu won 6-3, 7-5 as our third doubles team. Gill and Liu came back from a 3-5 deficit in the second set to take victory. We have been promoted to division B2 for league play next year.