STANFORD TENNIS – ON THE MOVE!!

What an exciting year 2008-09 promises to be! In spite of the graduation of three outstanding seniors, our women’s team has added three highly touted freshmen to its roster. Coaches Lele Forood and Frankie Brennan have good reason for their optimism. Their home season begins Oct. 17-20, when they host the ITA Regional Championships (admission free), and features an additional 16 home dual matches throughout the Winter and Spring.

As for the Stanford men, an extremely strong returning group will be complemented by two of the very best juniors in the country as well as a talented local stand-out. The future is indeed bright for coaches John Whitlinger and Brandon Coupe, as Stanford continues its significant progress to reach the very top. Stanford men’s tennis has returned to the battle for national supremacy!

Go to www.gostanford.com for complete schedules for the men’s and women’s teams.

We still need your help. An example is our appeal for COACHSHIP ENDOWMENTS. We are actively seeking gifts for endowing the Men’s Head Coaching Position and the Women’s Assistant Coaching Position. Each of these “named” endowments represents an investment of app. $1.5 million, which may be spread over a five-year period.

But the primary purpose of this newsletter is to Welcome You to a new and exciting year of Stanford tennis.

Hello everyone and welcome to the start of a new season with a fabulous group of players.  We are young, but we are definitely hungry for the upcoming season!  We welcome freshmen Courtney Clayton of Ft. Lauderdale, Veronica Li of Delray Beach, FL and Logan Hansen of Santa Monica to our team!

Our season gets underway immediately with Hilary, Jess, Lindsay and Logan competing at the ITA All-American Championships at Riviera CC in Pacific Palisades Oct. 1-5.

We will follow that up with the St. Mary’s Invitational Oct. 10-12 which will give more of our players the chance to get some match play in before we host the ITA Northwest Regional Championships at Stanford Oct. 17-20th.

If you would like to watch Hilary and Jess play alongside Martina Hingis and many others former pros please join us at Harbor Point Club in Mill Valley (Marin County) at the Esurance Tennis Classic to benefit breast cancer research on Sunday Oct. 12th!  Last year we got to witness Hilary acing Lindsay Davenport the first time she served to her!  (Lindsay returned the favor immediately, by the way!)

In November we are off again Thanksgiving week to the beautiful island of Maui for our annual clinic and match with the University of Hawaii.  If you would like to join us for the week we have limited availability remaining so contact John Whitlinger or myself immediately!

We look forward to seeing you at the matches this fall!

L to R:  Frosh Courtney Clayton, Veronica Li & Logan Hansen

We are looking forward to an exciting 2008-09 season. We would like to update you on what some of the players past and present have done this summer, and what we are looking forward to this fall.

Summer 2008 Recap:

1. Former players, Bob and Mike Bryan, Jim Thomas, David Martin, Scott Lipsky and Sam Warburg have had success this summer playing on the ATP, Challenger, and Futures tours.

2. Congratulations to Bob and Mike Bryan and their Davis Cup participation, and US Open championship.

3. Sam Warburg was a member of the World Team Tennis Sacramento Capitals, and got to the 2nd round of the US Open.

4. Alex Clayton participated in the qualifying of the US Open.

Fall Outlook:
Roster:
Matt Bruch  Senior – Lake Forest, IL
Alex Clayton  Sophomore – Plantation, FL
Greg Hirshman  Sophomore – La Jolla, CA
Jamie Hutter  Freshman – Menlo Park, CA
Kevin Kaiser  Junior – Saratoga, CA
Ted Kelly  Sophomore – Owings Mills, MD
Bradley Klahn  Freshman – Poway, CA
Paul Morrissey  Junior – Dublin, Ireland
Blake Muller  Senior – Santa Barbara, CA
Ryan Thacher  Freshman – Studio City, CA
Richard Wire  Junior – Essex, England
Jeff Zeller  Senior – Centennial, CO

New Additions:
We are very pleased that Jamie Hutter (Menlo Park, CA), Bradley Klahn (Poway, CA), and Ryan Thacher (Studio City, CA) have joined the Cardinal. This recruiting class was ranked #1 in the country, and all are left-handed!!

Summary:
Phil Kao was the only graduating senior. He made significant contributions in his four years, and certainly will be missed. We wish him well in his future endeavors.

Brandon, JJ and I are looking forward to this season.  We were very pleased with the way the team competed last year day in, and day out. We made significant strides in getting Stanford Tennis back toward the top. This year we plan to take it another step. We have our normal fall events, highlighted by our annual trip to Hawaii Thanksgiving week. We will be going to Maui once again. The team always looks forward to this trip. We look forward to seeing you at our matches. Thank you for all your support over the years. Go Card!!

Alex Clayton - All American