Thursday, 5/22/97 Bulldogs’ loss amplified by graduation of key
players TENNIS: Team shifts focus to individual play in last leg of
tournament
By Vytas Mazeika Daily Bruin Staff It is a shame that
Mississippi’s efforts during the intercollegiate tennis
championships may only be remembered by a controversial
confrontation with an umpire. Entering the NCAA championships the
Rebels had three of the top-10 players in the nation in Sebastien
DeChaunac (No. 2), Johan Landsberg (No. 8) and Johan Hede (No. 9).
As the most powerful trio of players in the nation, they were
supposed to garner attention due to their tennis talent and
academic achievements rather than their emotional outbursts. But in
the Rebels’ semifinal match against Stanford on Sunday, Landsberg,
the No. 3 player on Mississippi, received a one-game penalty while
arguing with the umpire over a ball that looked in. At the same
time, DeChaunac (who had recently lost), also complained to the
umpire. Landsberg’s serve was broken due to the controversial call
and gave Stanford’s Mike Bryan a 6-5 lead in the first set – the
one game penalty ended the set at 7-5 Stanford. "It was more like
we walked into each other," Landsberg said on Wednesday. The
face-to-face confrontation between Landsberg and the umpire took
place as the umpire got down from his chair to change the score.
Regularly the umpires have the scorecard right in front of their
chairs, but in this case it was located on the opposite end of the
court. "(The umpire) wanted to get by (to change the score),
Landsberg wanted to know about the point and that is why they
bumped into each other," Mississippi coach Billy Chadwick said.
"Otherwise you look at (how the set-up is regularly laid out) and
say, how can you bump into the referee?" Landsberg’s match never
concluded as Stanford won the match 4-2 and advanced to the final
before eventually winning the national championship. The loss to
Stanford was especially hard for both Hede and Landsberg, who are
graduating seniors. "Well, since it was our last opportunity to win
the team championship it was disappointing, but we lost against a
great team," Landsberg said. However, with the team championship
lost the three Bulldogs turned their attention to the individual
tournament, which began Wednesday. Although the fifth-seeded Hede
was upset by Gavin Sontag of Illinois 6-3, 6-4, both DeChaunac and
Landsberg advanced to today’s second round with easy victories.
DeChaunac beat Rafael Fontes of Southwest Louisiana, 6-4, 6-3,
while Landsberg blew past Tulsa’s Nenad Toroman, 6-2, 6-1. Chadwick
retains high hopes for both DeChaunac and Landsberg. "In the case
of Sebastien, he needs to find some way … I hope that he serves
this game out, makes this a fairly easy match and maybe (gets) some
confidence going into the next match, because right now his
confidence isn’t that great," Chadwick explained right as DeChaunac
miss-hit a ball a long ways out. "As you just saw," he added. But
DeChaunac can at any time pull his game together and surprise many
players with his overpowering ground strokes. In the team’s
second-round matchup against Boise State, DeChaunac survived a
thrilling three-set match to clinch the victory for Mississippi.
"He got a little tight in the second set which showed he was
human," Chadwick commented after DeChaunac’s three-set victory.
"And what impressed me is … he had the composure, determination
and heart to continue fighting in the third set." Mississippi has
so much talent in its lineup that it is hard to recognize who
should play in which spot. Although DeChaunac is the highest-
ranked player on the team, he plays at the two spot. This is due to
the fact that Hede was the preseason No. 1, and his ranking dipped
when he played as an amateur in the professional tour during the
fall and lost points in the college rankings. "I think the truth of
the matter is that we have three No. 1 players on our team,"
Chadwick said. The international trio (Hede and Landsberg are both
from Sweden and DeChaunac was born in France) is not only a menace
on the court but also in the classroom. Both Hede and Landsberg
were academic All-Americans last season, and this past semester
Hede and DeChaunac each had 4.0 GPAs while Landsberg had a 3.8 GPA.
"I’d like to think that we represent the best of college tennis,"
Chadwick said after his team’s second-round victory against Boise
State on Sunday. And after the next couple of days of competition
come and go, Mississippi’s top three players will hopefully be
remembered for both their athletic and academic achievements rather
than their inopportune confrontation. * * * In other tournament
action, there were a couple of surprises. Fourth-seeded Mike
Russell of Miami fell to Simon Larose of Mississippi State 6-7,
6-4, 6-3. Meanwhile, 9-16 seeded Justin O’Neal of Florida lost to
Xavier Avila of Kansas, and 9-16 seeded Mitch Sprengelmeyer of
Middle Tennessee St. lost to Anthony DeLuise of Clemson. PATRICK
LAM/Daily Bruin Mississippi’s Sebastien DeChaunac is ordered off
the court by umpire Jim Russell after vouching for teammate Johan
Landsberg on what they thought was a questionable call.