The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Oklahoma (Big 12 Championships quarterfinals)
No. 15 Oklahoma edges No. 9 Men's Tennis, 4-3 at Big 12 Championships
04.27.2017 | Men's Tennis
Longhorns notch two top-30 wins but fall just short in Thursday’s quarterfinals.
NORMAN, Okla. - No. 9 Texas (19-7) registered top-30 singles wins from Christian Sigsgaard and Harrison Scott and added another victory from Julian Zlobinsky, but 15th-ranked and fifth-seeded host Oklahoma held on for a 4-3 win over the fourth-seeded Longhorns Thursday in the opening round of the Big 12 Championships.
The Sooners garnered doubles victories at the second and first positions to win the doubles point and assume a 1-0 match lead. At second doubles, OU's 66th-ranked tandem of Florin Bragusi and Alex Ghilea broke UT's Colin Markes and Leonardo Telles for a 2-0 lead. OU held serve the rest of the way and closed out a 6-2 win.
At first doubles, UT's George Goldhoff and Christian Sigsgaard trailed OU's 15th-ranked duo of Andrew Harris and Spencer Papa, 5-3, but the Longhorns broke the Sooners to pull within 5-4. Texas saved one match point in the ensuing game, but Oklahoma converted the next one to finish off a 6-4 win and claim the doubles point. The remaining match at third doubles was suspended with Texas leading 5-4.
Zlobinsky put the Horns on the board at sixth singles with his convincing 6-4, 6-1 victory over Adrian Oetzbach. Texas assumed a 2-1 lead with Scott's win over the 18th-ranked Papa at second singles. Scott trailed 4-1 in the first set but fought all the way back to force a tiebreaker, where he prevailed, 7-1. Scott broke Papa's serve early in the second set and took the set, 6-1 to give the Horns the lead.
Oklahoma evened the tally at two behind Jochen Bertsch's 6-3, 7-5 win over Rodrigo Banzer at fifth singles. The Sooners took the lead once more by way of Bragusi's 7-6 (6), 6-4 win over UT's Telles at fourth singles.
Sigsgaard kept the Horns in the match with his tight three-set win over the 30th-ranked Harris at first singles. Sigsgaard broke Harris for a 5-3 first-set lead and held serve to close out a 6-3 first-set win. Harris took the second set 6-3 to remain in the match.
Sigsgaard broke Harris for a 4-2 third-set lead and held serve for 5-2. Harris, however, held serve for 5-3 and broke Sigsgaard's serve for 5-4. Sigsgaard returned the favor in the next game and thwarted Harris' hopes for a victory with one last service break to close out the third set, 6-4 and even the team match at three.
The decisive seventh point in the match came down to third singles with UT's George Goldhoff and OU's 40th-ranked Alex Ghilea. Goldhoff trailed 5-2 in the first set but came all the way back to force a tiebreaker, where Ghilea was victorious, 7-4. Goldhoff broke Ghilea right away in the second set on his way to a 6-3 win.
Goldhoff picked up an early service break off of Ghilea in the final set for a 2-1 lead, but Ghilea won the next five games to close out the third set and the Sooners' 4-3 win.
The NCAA Championships tournament field of 64 will be revealed next Tuesday (May 2) at NCAA.com. Texas is likely to host first- and second-round matches in Austin (May 12-14).
POST-MATCH COMMENTS
Texas head coach Michael Center
On the match
From a fan perspective it was a great match. Both teams did a lot of great things. From our perspective we beat them up here without (OU's) Andrew Harris and this time we didn't have Yuya Ito. For us to win at Nos. 1 and 2 singles the way we did today was a really good sign, really impressive. We got off the court quickly at No. 6 singles, and we had some opportunities in some of the other matches, but I've got to give OU credit.
I didn't see some of the match at No. 4, and we had a set point at No. 5, which would have been a big match to split and get an opportunity to win the third set. Overall it was a great match. We've got two weeks to get ready for the NCAA Championships. I've seen a lot of good things, but we also need to clean a few things up and get ready for the NCAA tournament.
On the top-30 wins from Christian Sigsgaard and Harrison Scott
Andrew Harris (whom Sigsgaard defeated) is one of the best players in the country and has qualified for a grand slam event. One of the things Christian has had to battle playing all these great players at the top is getting down or losing his focus or getting discouraged. He got broken in the third set and had a match point where Harris made a running forehand passing shot to break him, but Christian came back to break serve. That was a great effort by him today and a nice effort by Harrison to beat (Spencer) Papa, who is another really good player. Julian stepped in and had a nice result today. There were a lot of good things that we did today. We'll try to get everyone healthy and hope to play our best tennis down the stretch.
On hosting NCAA Championships matches
I don't know what seed we'll be, but we'll need our fans to come out for those matches. We've had great crowds over at Caswell, and we've got a nice support system out there.
Big 12 Championship Quarterfinals
No. 15 Oklahoma 4, No. 9 Texas 3
Doubles – Order of Finish: 2, 1
1 No. 15 Andrew Harris/Spencer Papa (OU) def. George Goldhoff/Christian Sigsgaard (UT), 6-4
2 No. 66 Florin Bragusi/Alex Ghilea (OU) def. Colin Markes/Leonardo Telles (UT), 6-2
3 Julian Zlobinsky/Harrison Scott (UT) vs. Jochen Bertsch/Adrian Oetzbach (OU), 5-4, susp.
Singles – Order of Finish: 6, 2, 5, 4, 1, 3
1 No. 26 Christian Sigsgaard (UT) def. No. 30 Andrew Harris (OU), 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
2 No. 45 Harrison Scott (UT) def. No. 18 Spencer Papa (OU), 7-6 (1), 6-1
3 No. 40 Alex Ghilea (OU) def. George Goldhoff (UT), 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-2
4 No. 107 Florin Bragusi (OU) def. Leonardo Telles (UT), 7-6 (6), 6-4
5 Jochen Bertsch (OU) def. Rodrigo Banzer (UT), 6-3, 7-5
6 Julian Zlobinsky (UT) def. Adrian Oetzbach (OU), 6-4, 6-1
Players Mentioned
