Four days. Four draws. Two titles?

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Peter Krutzik

Sophomores Eric McKean and James Wan will play as a doubles team in the invitational draw tomorrow.

The No. 21 Stanford men’s tennis team began Pacific-10 Conference Tournament play yesterday in Ojai, Calif., where the Cardinal are competing for individual titles in the singles and doubles draws of the 105th annual Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament.

Taking a short break from the usual dual-match format, the Cardinal (13-10, 4-3) sent eight players to compete in the historic tournament. Each of the eight teams in the conference sent four players to compete in the singles draw and two doubles teams to compete in the main doubles draw. The invitational draws for singles and doubles have similar formats, with brackets of 32 and 16, respectively.

“The tournament’s nice to get away from the rigors of dual-match competition,” head coach John Whitlinger said. “You want to go down there and play as many matches as possible, and you want to go down there and not get injured. It’s a great tournament, and there’s great history to it. It’s an honor to compete in and an honor if you win.”

While the Cardinal claimed fourth in team rankings in the Pac-10, Stanford’s chances for capturing both a singles and a doubles title look good as senior Sam Warburg is the defending Pac-10 singles champion, and Warburg and junior KC Corkery are the defending NCAA doubles champions. Warburg is currently ranked second in the ITA poll after Baylor’s Benedikt Dorsch. At No. 4, he and Corkery are the highest ranked pair in the Pac-10.

While Warburg is the top-ranked singles player in the Pac-10, No. 6 UCLA boasts Luben Pampoulov at No. 6 and Benjamin Kohlloeffel at No. 8. and has five singles players ranked in the top 125.

After playing in his final home match in Tuesday’s win over Santa Clara, Warburg reminisced about his time at Stanford.

“I love being out there; competing is always amazing. Knowing that it was going to be the last time I played a match for Stanford in that stadium, it definitely hit me pretty hard. It still hasn’t been able to sink in completely.

“My goal [now] is to go [to Ojai] and win the tournament. I’d love to be able to defend my title, and I’m really excited for the challenge.”

While doubles play begins today, singles play began yesterday and the Cardinal got off to a good start in the main draw. Warburg picked up a 6-0, 6-2 win against Southern California’s Adam Loucks, and sophomore James Wan advanced to the next round as Roger Matalonga of Arizona retired after an injury. Senior Phil Sheng lost in a close match to No. 12 Jamil Al-Agba of USC by a score of 6-1, 2-6, 6-3. Corkery withdrew from singles play in the first round.

In the second round, Warburg picked up a 6-2, 6-2 win over California’s Daniel Sebescen.

Junior Jon Wong, sophomores Eric McKean and Dave Ryan and freshman Phil Kao all competed in the invitational singles draw. The sophomore roommates were dealt straight-set losses and Wong lost a tight three-setter. Kao was the only Cardinal in the invitational draw to advance to the following round, earning a 6-1, 6-0 win against Arizona’s Tim Mullane. The freshman then won his next round 6-4, 6-2 against Eric Pickard of Oregon.

In the main doubles draw, the defending NCAA champions, and the duo of Sheng and Wong, will compete for the Cardinal. McKean and Wan will play together in the invitational draw as will Kao and Ryan. Doubles play begins at 9 a.m.

Last year, Corkery teamed up with James Pade, a junior who is red-shirting, and the duo lost 8-3 in the finals to UCLA’s Philipp Gruendler and Pampoulov. Corkery and Pade also lost in the finals their freshman year.

“I feel like if I don’t win Pac-10s, it’s going to be disappointing,” Corkery said. “I’ve lost in the finals of that tournament four times now. It’s really kind of frustrating — getting to the finals isn’t going to be enough anymore.”

Following Corkery and Warburg, the next highest ranked pair in the conference is Cal’s Patrick Briaud and Conor Niland, who are currently ranked 12th. Washington’s Daniel Chu and Alex Slovic are ranked 15th.

“Normally at this time of the year, at least for the past two years, people have been worn down as we’re gearing up for NCAAs,” Corkery said. “I feel like we’ve always been [a little] mentally and strategically [tired] at this point in the season, especially after going through the Pac-10 schedule. But this year doesn’t seem to be that way. We seem pretty enthusiastic about improving and getting better, and hopefully we’ll use that energy and keep it going throughout the NCAAs.”