NTU men’s tennis wins first SUniG team gold in 5 years

By Nicole Chia, Sports Editor

Hiroud Akhavan (pictured), 30, beat National University of Singapore’s Tan Zhi Yi 9-6 to bag the coveted gold. PHOTO: NICHOLAS YEO

NTU’s men tennis players clinched their first team gold since 2011 at last month’s Singapore University Games (SUniG).

Led by coach Ignatius Hendroff, who only joined NTU in January, the men beat defending champion National University of Singapore (NUS) 3-2.

The team came from a medal-less finish at SUniG in 2014.

The victory was extra sweet for men’s team captain Mervin Ng, who turned 24 on 15 Feb, the day of the final match.

“It was definitely a good birthday present,” said Ng, a final-year student at the School of Electrical Engineering.

Ng said the competition was stressful, with players on both sides closely matched in skill.

“Every single point mattered, and I was biting my nails as I watched my teammates play.”

The battle for men’s team gold was indeed a nail-biter.

With the score locked at 2-2, it was down to the fifth and final singles match to determine the SUniG team champion.

And NTU’s Hiroud Akhavan delivered, beating NUS’ Tan Zhi Yi 9-6 to bag the coveted gold.

Akhavan, a Canadian exchange student at Nanyang Business School, said: “Of course there was pressure playing the deciding match, but I was playing for the team.

“I tried to stay calm and play aggressively. I’m glad things went well.”

Akhavan, 30, who used to be the top-ranked junior player in Canada, has a career-high singles ranking of 140 on the International Tennis Federation’s junior circuit.

“I could hear my teammates cheering for me, and it was great to hear that they were rallying behind me,” he said.

NTU’s women’s team finished its season in third place, ahead of Singapore Institute of Management.

Despite narrowly missing out on retaining the silver medal after losing 2-3 to Singapore Management University (SMU), women’s vice-captain Tricia Tan, 19, remained upbeat.

The second-year undergrad ate at School of Humanities and Social Sciences said the post-ponement of SUniG weakened the team considerably.

With several key players away on exchange, the women’s team had to field players with less match experience.

The competition had been postponed from last semester due to haze.

“We obviously wanted the silver medal, but third place is pretty good, considering how little time we had to reshuffle our line-up,” said Tan.

Their narrow losses to SMU and champion NUS will only fuel their desire to come back stronger next year, she added.

But NTU’s tennis players may be entering their new season without a coach, as a decision on coach Hendroff’s employment is still up in the air.

Mr Hendroff’s contract is slated to last only until the last day of SUniG on 16 Feb.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Nanyang Chronicle on March 7, 2016, with the headline ‘Men’s tennis wins first SUniG team gold in 5 years’. Print Edition