International players boost Stanford men’s title chances
Despite Stanford’s preeminence in the so-called country-club sports, it hasn’t won the men’s NCAA tennis title since 2000.
That could change this year because an already strong team picked up reinforcements from, of all places, Argentina and France. And this is a program that doesn’t usually recruit internationally.
The No. 4 Cardinal (20-2, 7-1 Pac-12) wrapped up their best regular season in 17 years last weekend with one-sided victories over Oregon and Washington. Their only losses this season were to No. 1 Wake Forest and No. 2 UCLA, a team they had beaten earlier in a nonconference match.
They’ll enter this week’s Pac-12 championships in Ojai (Ventura County) as the No. 2 seed.