All Gustavus Doubles Final Highlights Day Three of ITA Midwest Regional

REGIONAL WEBPAGE | PHOTO GALLERY

SAINT PETER, Minn. – The ITA Midwest Regional Championship completed all but the singles final on Sunday, with an all Gustavus doubles final highlighting the day. Chase Johnson and Patrick Whaling came out on top in the championship doubles match over fellow teammates Yassine Derbani and Nick Aney by a score of 7-6, 6-2. With the victory, Johnson and Whaling solidified themselves as All-Americans.

On the doubles bracket, coach Tommy Valentini said, “Yassine and Nick were tremendous as a first time pairing – and they played an outstanding match to take out the top seed in the semis. Patrick and Chase were fantastic in bouncing back from tough singles losses. They chose to be positive and played some excellent doubles. It’s a huge honor for Patrick to become a three-time doubles All-American, and Chase is extremely deserving to join the Gustie All-Americans. They played an extremely high-level final against Yassnie and Nick.”

Johnson and Whaling got to the championship in very clean fashion with some stellar play. In their first match, they defeated Zach Wood and Robert Rider of UW-Whitewater by a score of 8-3. In the round of 16 they played Zach Lane and Ishaan Tibrewal of Grinell and came out victorious 8-4. They beat Sahil Chhugani and William Walsh of Carleton 8-1 in the round of eight before defeating Xander Zuczek and Aaron Goodman of Carleton 8-2 to advance to the finals.

“It was a thrilling day for our guys. First, hats off to Vithoontien of Carleton and Trondson of Hamline today. They both played excellent singles semis against Patrick and Chase, and will have a great singles final tomorrow,” said Valentini. “Overall, the weekend was very successful for our program. To have 5 of 8 singles quarterfinalists, and 2 of 4 doubles semifinalists in the ITA Regionals, as well as to have all of the finalists in both the main draw and Midwest Open is a great accomplishment. All of the guys competed very well and represented our program beautifully. Most of all, I’m grateful for how well our guys handled the challenge of playing against their teammates, and how beautifully they took care of one-another and gave their best with great sportsmanship. We look forward to preparing Chase and Patrick for the DIII ITA National Championships, and to building on the progress we made as a team over the regional weekend.”

Johnson and Whaling will next compete the ITA Oracle Cup, which will be held Oct. 11-14 at the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College in Rome, Ga. The ITA Cup features eight regional champions competing for the national title.