One of four former Trinity stars (Preston Quick, Jonny Smith and Joe Pentland are the others) currently occupying the ISDA top-20, this Swiss-born (and “Swiss” nicknamed) 28-year-old presently based at the Apawamis Club (where he learned the doubles game from the club’s longtime head pro, two-time North American Open Doubles champion Peter Briggs) has progressed through the standings ever since joining up with Eric Vlcek midway through the 2007-08 tour season. From having to qualify into main draws during that winter/spring ’08, they reached four quarterfinals this past season, largely on the basis of a pair of taut round-of-16 wins over Whitten Morris and Michael Ferreira (saving a fourth-game match-ball-against in Baltimore, then persevering in an airtight rematch a few months later in Greenwich) and a solid first-round win over John White and Hansi Wiens last spring at the Players Championship. These results more than counter-balanced the near-misses they suffered at the Big Apple Open (where they were a third-game tiebreaker away from beating Willie Hosey and Mark Chaloner after leading two games to love) and in Brooklyn, where they lost 15-13 in the fourth to Morris and Shane Coleman. They won the first-ever Challenger tourney in October ’08 in Pittsburgh, an accomplishment that Badan nearly duplicated in Wilmington last month when he and first-time partner (and former Trinity College teammate) Jonny Smith came within a single point of defeating Chris Walker and Mark Chaloner in a thrilling two-hour-plus final.
