The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Texas A&M
No. 5 Men's Tennis tops No. 10 Texas A&M, 4-3
02.04.2011 | Men's Tennis
Feb. 4, 2011
HOUSTON - No. 5 Texas (6-0) collected the doubles point and added three-set singles wins from sophomores Ben Chen, Vasko Mladenov and Daniel Whitehead in a 4-3 win over No. 10 Texas A&M (3-1) Friday evening in the Texas Cup, an annual non-conference indoor match played at The Downtown Club at The Met. The match does not count toward the State Farm Lone Star Showdown standings.
"This was an unbelievable college tennis match," UT head coach Michael Center said. "It was just a great team effort. Texas A&M has a very good, seasoned team. All of those guys played for them last year. Our new guys just stepped up and contributed. Our depth showed tonight at the bottom of our lineup."
The doubles session featured three extremely tight matches, and the Longhorns ultimately took two of three to assume a 1-0 lead in the match. Chen and Mladenov struck first with an 8-6 win at the third slot over the Aggies' Alberto Bautista and Colin Hoover. The match at first doubles pitted A&M's top-ranked duo of Jeff Dadamo and Austin Krajicek and UT's fifth-ranked tandem of senior Ed Corrie and junior Jean Andersen. The match progressed to a tiebreaker, where the Aggies prevailed, 7-3.
The outcome of the doubles point fell to the second slot, where Texas' Kellen Damico and David Holiner met Texas A&M's Junior Ore and Alexey Grigorov. Damico and Holiner broke the Aggies' serve in the final game, as UT took a 9-7 victory to seal the doubles point for the Horns.
The Aggies answered with a pair of straight-set wins at the second and first slots, respectively, and took a 2-1 lead. Texas' Chen split his opening two sets with A&M's Grigorov at fourth singles before prevailing in the third, 6-2 to even the match at two apiece. UT's 78th-ranked Mladenov followed suit against A&M's 95th-ranked Hoover at fifth singles, where he broke Hoover's serve in the final game to win his match, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 and give Texas a 3-2 lead.
At sixth singles, Whitehead lost his first set in a tiebreaker to Bautista and took the second set, 6-4. Whitehead followed Mladenov's lead and broke Bautista in his final service game of the set and claimed a 6-4 third-set win to clinch the match for the Longhorns. Texas A&M's Alexis Klegou outlasted UT's Andersen in a third-set tiebreaker at third singles to tally the final point for the Aggies.
Texas returns to action on Wednesday, Feb. 9 when it hosts SMU at UT's Penick-Allison Tennis Center. First serve is set for 3:30 p.m. Central.
POST-MATCH COMMENTS
Texas head coach Michael Center
On the doubles session
"In doubles, we were down a break at all three spots, but we broke back at all three. We ended up breaking them up at 6-7 to win the match at No. 3 doubles. At No. 2 doubles, they were serving 7-8 and we got to match point. David Holiner stepped up and ripped three balls at them and they missed the volley at the end. I was really impressed by how David played that big point. He did a great job, and he is improving quickly. Obviously, the doubles point was a huge point."
On the singles session
"We lost at Nos. 1 and 2. A&M brought some speed and had some big servers. We had some chances, but we went down 2-1. Ben Chen was hurting a bit, but he fought back and got us back on the board. Jean Andersen had a chance at No. 3, but he got broken and lost in a tiebreaker. Vasko Mladenov broke his opponent at 4-5 in the third to get his win and put us up, 3-2. And Daniel Whitehead was able to break at 4-5 in the third to win the match for us."
No. 5 Texas 4, No. 3 Texas A&M 3
Doubles - Order of Finish: 3, 1, 2
1 #1 Jeff Dadamo/Austin Krajicek (TAMU) def. #5 Ed Corrie/Jean Andersen (UT) - 9-8 (3)
2 #25 Kellen Damico/David Holiner (UT) def. Junior Ore/Alexey Grigorov (TAMU) - 9-7
3 Chen/Mladenov (UT) def. Bautista/Hoover (TAMU) - 8-6
Singles - Order of Finish: 2, 1, 4, 5, 6, 3
1 #23 Austin Krajicek (TAMU) def. Ed Corrie (UT) - 6-3, 7-6 (0)
2 #54 Jeff Dadamo (TAMU) def. Kellen Damico (UT) - 6-3, 6-3
3 #106 Alexis Klegou (TAMU) def. Jean Andersen (UT) - 6-4, 2-6, 7-6
4 #100 Ben Chen (UT) def. Alexey Grigorov (TAMU) - 6-4, 5-7, 6-2
5 #78 Vasko Mladenov (UT) def. #95 Colin Hoover (TAMU) - 2-6, 6-2, 6-4
6 Daniel Whitehead (UT) def. Alberto Bautista (TAMU) - 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4
