October 6, 2003
Taylor Wins Second Straight ITA
Regional Singles Championship

SWARTHMORE, PA -- Washington College senior Peter Taylor (Canton, CT/Canton) captured his second consecutive ITA Southeast Regional Singles Championship this afternoon at Swarthmore College. Taylor defeated David Shay of Washington & Lee, 6-3, 6-3, in the final match and earned a berth in the ITA National Small College Championships, to be held October 16th-19th in Corpus Christi, TX.

Taylor, who was seeded first in singles, opened play at the regional tournament on Saturday, defeating Steve Ehrlich of Carnegie Mellon, 6-4, 6-2, in the first round and Justin Chan of Johns Hopkins, 6-0, 6-0, in the second round. On Sunday, he bested Mary Washington's Tim Ryan, 6-1, 6-0, in round three and Washington & Lee's Graham Nix, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2, in the quarterfinals. In today's semifinal match, Taylor took set one against Washington & Lee's K.C. Schaefer, 7-5, and was leading the second set, 3-1, before Schaefer had to retire due to a sprained ankle. Taylor then went on to defeat a Washington & Lee player for the third straight round by topping Shay in the final. In all, Taylor dropped just one set en route to winning the singles title.

In doubles play, Taylor teamed with junior Asfand Farouk (Karachi, Pakistan/City School) to reach the semifinals. Taylor and Farouk, who were seeded fourth, downed Hassan Shah and Madhan Srinivasan of Wilkes, 8-4, in round one and Carnegie Mellon's JardanÊKoslosky and Carl Yang, 8-3, in the second round. In the quarterfinals, the WC tandem topped Swarthmore's MikeÊNoreika and Frank Visciano, 8-6. Taylor and Farouk's run ended in the semifinals with an 8-6 loss to top-seeded Scott Mayberry and Nick Peel of Salisbury

Other than Taylor, Farouk was the Shoremen to advance the furthest in singles play. He defeated Carnegie Mellon's Boris Sofman, 7-6, 6-2, in the first round and Carl Lederman of Haverford in the second round, 6-1, 6-2. In the third round, Farouk rallied for a 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory over Washington & Lee's John Malloley. After dropping the first set and trailing 5-2 in the second set, Farouk won 10 straight games, winning the second set and going up 5-0 in the third set. At that point, he suffered a cramp and lost four straight games before managing to pull out the 6-4 win in set three. The injury was too much for him to overcome in the quarterfinals, however, as he was forced to retire against Schaefer after dropping the first set, 6-4.

Elsewhere in singles, sophomores Maciek Prytula (Szczecin, Poland/PLO), Tim Riskie (Woodbury, NJ/Woodbury), and Ronen Kashvin (Rishon Le Tzion, Israel/Hashmonaim Bat-Yam) each won a qualifying match and a first round match before bowing out of the tournament in the second round. Taylor and Farouk were the only Washington doubles team to advance past the first round.

WC Match Results