On Sunday, No. 9 Stanford men’s tennis dominated No. 25 Florida State 4-0 at home as Samir Banerjee, Alex Razeghi, and Nico Godsick got the wins for singles while doubles took two out of three to get the doubles point. Godsick played doubles with Henry von der Schulenburg, winning their set 7-6 to help clinch the doubles point. Stanford is now 10-4 on the season and 2-2 in the ACC.
“We did win today, Florida State is a really quality team,” Stanford head coach Paul Goldstein said after the match. “We played a battle on Friday before we played them today, Sunday. So I’m really pleased. A highlight for me is Hudson Rivera woke up feeling a little bit sick, so Nico Godsick, who wasn’t expecting to play singles today, stepped up and really performed well not knowing necessarily he was going to play. We talk about always being ready and that was a great example of it today. So really happy for him. He ended up playing a great match.
“How about Samir Banerjee won beating the number 19 guy in the country 6-0, 6-1. I mean that’s just phenomenal. At three doubles, we were one all in doubles, the two matches, and so whoever wins three doubles wins the point. Henry and Nico had been in that situation two times before, going to a tiebreaker and lost both. And they both were adamant that they ain’t gonna let that happen again and they got the chance to do it again today and they came through. And so that was just I think a big momentum lift for our team. Really happy for those guys.”
Stanford number one singles player Samir Banerjee was the top performer for the Cardinal overall as he dominated Florida State’s top singles player Corey Craig 6-0, 6-1. Banerjee is ranked No. 16 in the nation while Craig is ranked No. 19, so on paper this should have been a much closer match.
“Yeah, that feels good,” Banerjee said of his win over Craig. “It was a good match. I try not to really pay attention to rankings when I’m playing someone. I just try to come out and just play my best and yeah, I thought I played pretty close to it today. So it was good.
“Definitely my forehand [was clicking]. I thought I was able to dictate with that well. I thought I came forward well, finished at the net very well and I thought I just remained focused the entire time. Just didn’t let up. Kept my level high and I thought that was the best part.”
“Well, I mean, the results speak for themselves in terms of quality of results,” Goldstein said of Banerjee. “But it comes from a process and it comes from him sort of increasing the discipline with respect to how he trains, how he approaches the game, he’s matured a lot in the last two years and so, you’re seeing the results of that. His discipline has gone up dramatically in the last year or so or six months and it’s showing and that’s one of the things where it’s so wonderful to see good people get rewarded for the work that they’re putting in.”
The match that ended the day and clinched it for the Cardinal was Alex Razeghi’s 6-1, 5-7, 6-1 victory over Joshua Dous-Karpenschif. Once Razeghi had his match clinched, that ended the day as the Cardinal now had the four points necessary to win.
“I’m pretty sure he’s leading our team in dual match wins as a freshman, and so he’s just a rock,” Goldstein said of Razeghi. “He looks like he blinked for the first time all year up a set and five one or five two. Blinked a little bit, but then to regroup starting right away in the third set, I mean that guy is just, I know he lost that second, but I wasn’t too worried about him just because I know he’s not the kind of guy who is never going to go anywhere.”
For Stanford, this was a really nice win for them. They came in favored to win as they are the higher ranked team, but to take care of business so handily against a top-25 team still has to feel good.
“It’s a good problem to have in that we’ve got so many good players down the line,” Goldstein said of their depth. “It’s a bad problem to have because you can’t play them all. I’d play any team in the country if we could go 10 deep, but we can’t, and so we’re just trying to keep guys as healthy as possible. If guys are a little banged up, we have such quality that we have, just like today. No problem with a guy getting a rest if he’s not feeling his best because we have so much confidence in everybody down the line.”
What also feels good for Stanford is to have a new tennis facility to be playing in. While the outdoor courts are still being finished along with their locker rooms, the indoor court is now complete, something they didn’t have before. That will give them more flexibility in times of rain and also an opportunity to host NCAA tournament events. Stanford is very grateful to play in such an amazing venue and is grateful for the commitment that Stanford has shown to tennis.
“Nice? I think it’s the best in the country,” Goldstein said of their new indoor courts. “We are really really thrilled with this. I mean, honestly better than anyone has anticipated. I think it has exceeded our expectations. Just a beautiful, beautiful facility. There’s just no other place like it in the country and no other place like it in the world that I’ve seen. It’s innovative and it’s just a gorgeous place to watch a match. So, we couldn’t be more pleased.”
Up next for Stanford is a home match against Notre Dame on Thursday, March 13th at 5:30 PM PT.
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