With only a few days of practice under their belts, the men of the Stanford tennis team will jump into the competitive fray at the 2004 Icy Hot / ITA Men’s All-American Championships in Chattanooga, Tenn. this upcoming week.

This will be the first of three national championship tournaments held during the 2004-05 season. Historically the largest collegiate tournament in the nation, this will be Stanford’s first chance to see what new players the team is up against this year.

Because most schools have been in session since August, the competition has had over a month more to prepare for this tournament. Regardless, head coach John Whitlinger still has confidence in his team.

“We’ve had three days of practice, and at this tournament you want them to start going and playing,” Whitlinger said. “You hope for the best and they do the best they can. The guys have taken a little time off in the summer, so we’re just getting going.”

The competition was put into motion on Friday with the start of the pre-qualifying rounds, which was void of any Stanford players. The qualifying rounds began yesterday when two Cardinal players took to the courts at noon.

Senior Phil Sheng had a close first-round match against No. 5 seeded Matt Lockin of Vanderbilt but was unable to pull past his opponent. Lockin and Sheng split the first two sets, but the Commodore player closed out Sheng in the final set, nabbing a 6-7(6), 7-6(4), 6-3 victory.

“I played well, but I just need to get in better shape,” Sheng said. “It’s the first tournament of the year, and I’m happy with how I played considering we just started practice a week ago.”

Sophomore No. 70 James Wan, seeded No. 9 in the qualifying rounds, also had a rough first day at the Champions Club. Wan was ousted in first-round play after losing 6-4, 6-3 to Alexander Farquharson of Texas-Arlington. Considering his fantastic win-streak last year, Wan was not pleased with the outcome of yesterday’s matches.

“This is the first time in a long time that I’ve lost two matches in one day,” Wan said.

Sheng and Wan entered the doubles tournament as an alternate team, but were shut down by Paul Rose and David Robinson of Purdue in a close 9-7 match.

“It was a great match,” Whitlinger said. “It wasn’t the greatest tennis in the world, but they competed hard. It was an interesting match to watch, but unfortunately we came up a little short in the end. I’m proud of the way they competed, and we’re going to get better and better.”

Main draw action will begin on Thursday. Cardinal fans should keep a lookout for senior No. 2 Sam Warburg, also seeded No. 2 in the tournament, and junior No. 20 KC Corkery.

Both have improved their game over the past year, and they will team up to form the No. 1 doubles duo, both in the tournament and in the nation.

The main draw will be posted on Wednesday, which will name Corkery and Warburg’s opponents and state when match play begins.

“Both Sam and KC played a little bit this summer on the Futures levels tournament on the ATP Tour as amateurs,” Whitlinger said. “I’m hoping for the best for those guys. I want them to be in the final, but we’ll just see where they’re at.”

“I always want to win tournaments, that’s for sure, but it’s very early in the season,” Whitlinger added. “I’m just anxious to see them play.”

In total, the Icy Hot / ITA All-American Championship will host 192 singles players and 96 doubles teams, downsizing into a 128-singles-player and 64-doubles-team qualifying tournament. The winners of the qualifying matches are fed into the 64-singles-player and 32-doubles-team main draw.

The Cardinal will look toward a better outcome this year after a disappointing showing at last year’s tournament.

Warburg was ousted in the first round of the main draw after being defeated by Jeremy Wurtzman of Ohio State, while Corkery was defeated in the second round by Washington’s Alex Vlaski.

Unfortunately, Warburg and Corkery will not be able to seek revenge. Wurtzman has since graduated and Vlaski will not be participating in the tournament.

Last year’s singles title went to Vlaski, who defeated Benedikt Dorsch of Baylor for the championship trophy. Lester Cook and Ante Matijevic of Texas A&M overcame Rice’s Richard and William Barker for the doubles title.

For Whitlinger, this tournament is only the beginning of a long string of challenges to look forward to.

“Everything is a building block, all the way though the season, culminating at the NCAAs,” he said. “I’m looking forward to any of the tournaments we play this fall; we just try to get better and better every day. When this tournament is over the focus will be on the guys getting fitter in practice.”

After this week, the next big tournament will be the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, which are held in November. The NCAA Championships rounds out the list of major tournaments for the season.