Going into last weekend’s Maryland Invitational, the Syracuse tennis team looked forward to playing top competition.

But SU doubles team Daniela Kaluskova and Wei-Ming Leong didn’t realize it was the top competition.

The pair, a junior and freshman, respectively, won the Flight B doubles title, defeating teams from George Washington, Cornell and Maryland.

In the championship, Kaluskova and Leong had their toughest match, an 8-6 win over Andreaa Fusea and Marta Jedrzejak of Maryland. After breaking the serve of Fusea and Jedrzejak to take a 7-6 lead, the SU tandem bore down.

‘Me and Daniela were really surprised, because Maryland was a tough team,’ Leong said. ‘But we knew we had a chance. Once we got it to 7-6, our serve, we were like, ‘Let’s get it.’ And then we just got it, one point at a time.’

Prior to the championship match, Kaluskova and Leong defeated George Washington’s Estee Bartell and Sevla Gonca in the first round, 8-4. In the semifinals, they disposed of Richmond’s Katie Karhohs and Casey Cohen, 8-6.

On their march through the brackets, Kaluskova and Leong forged team chemistry.

‘She sets up the point, and I put it away, or I set up the point, and she puts it away,” Leong said, “So it’s a good combination.”

‘They complement each other,’ coach Mac Gifford said. ‘When Daniela is on, her ground strokes are quite pinpoint. Wei-Ming is quite the athlete. She just sees the ball coming off her opponent’s racket, and she strikes and ends the point. If it were volleyball, it would be like the setter and the spiker.’

Other SU doubles teams succeeded, too. The duo of Masha Kabanova and Shervin Saedinia won three matches before losing in the Flight A finals. All four Syracuse pairs won their first-round matches.

‘These guys just love doubles,’ Gifford said. ‘We’re playing doubles with great shot placement. They’re having fun with the game, and they’re getting better all the time.

‘I’ve got a couple of teams that have played together for a while. They all like each other. They all know what they’re doing.’

It’s singles that concerns the Orangewomen. None of the eight SU singles entrants made it past the second round, and only Kaluskova and Kristine Beche Holte won a first-round singles contest.

‘Singles was spotty,’ Gifford said. ‘We need to find a way to win in singles. I’m trying to get these guys to realize that they can play with big-time players if they go in there with an arsenal of tricks up their sleeve.’

Although SU’s singles players need to be more creative and fearless against top teams, Gifford remains excited about Syracuse’s doubles play.

‘I’m just pleased as hell,’ he said. ‘We won the doubles. We are the tops in doubles.’

Published on October 1, 2002 at 12:00 pm