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No. 4 Men’s Tennis takes down No. 1 Ohio State, 4-1
03.14.2019 | Men's Tennis
The Longhorns avenged their only loss of the season by defeating the Buckeyes on Thursday.
Austin, Texas – The No. 4 Texas Men's Tennis team took down No. 1 Ohio State, 4-1, on Thursday night at the Texas Tennis Center. The Longhorns improved to 16-1 on the season and avenged their only loss, which had come to the Buckeyes on Feb. 17 in the semifinals of the ITA National Indoor Championships in Chicago.
Texas opened the match by taking the first doubles point from Ohio State that the Buckeyes had lost all season. After splitting the first two matches, it came down to a tiebreaker in second doubles between seniors Colin Markes and Leonardo Telles against Alex Kobelt and James Trotter. Down 3-2 in the tiebreaker, Markes and Telles rallied for three straight points for a 5-3 lead. Kobelt and Trotter took the next one, but Markes and Telles finished it with the last two. The match had stayed on serve all the way to the tiebreaker including three deuce games.
Prior to that, junior Yuya Ito and freshman Chih Chi Huang got things started with a 6-3 win over Kyle Seelig and John McNally in third doubles. Ito and Huang broke serve early for a 2-0 lead that they extended to 3-1. Seelig and McNally responded to tie the match, 3-3, but from there, Ito and Huang took two deuce games en route to a 5-3 lead and a 6-3 finish. In first doubles, the No. 13 pair of senior Harrison Scott and junior Christian Sigsgaard took it to the wire and had a deuce match point up 5-4 against No. 24 Martin Joyce and Hunter Tubert, but they were unable to secure it in a match that had six deuce point games. Joyce and Tubert won the next game with a deuce point before taking the last two for the 7-5 win.
"The doubles point was huge," interim head coach Bruce Berque said. "I think Colin Markes and Leo Telles really stepped up under pressure, and Chih Chi Huang and Yuya Ito did a great job in their match, too. Yuya was an absolute stud tonight in doubles and singles getting the first win in doubles and first point in singles, so that was huge. What I really liked about the match is everyone fought on every court, and we had fantastic crowd support, and the guys did a great job of supporting each other."
In singles, No. 9 Ito got the Longhorns off to a quick 2-0 lead by downing No. 28 Seelig, 6-0, 6-3 in second singles. Ito won the first seven games of the match before dropping a pair to trail 2-1 in the second set. He evened the match at both 2-2 and 3-3 before taking the final three games. Ito extended his team lead in dual match singles victories to 15 against only one loss, which came to McNally of Ohio State in the first meeting, and has now beaten five ranked opponents. Including tournament play, Ito is 26-4 this season.
In between doubles and singles, Texas inserted senior Rodrigo Banzer into the sixth singles spot and it paid off with a 7-6 (5), 6-2 win over Hunter Tubert. That gave the Longhorns a 3-1 lead as it ended almost simultaneously with Colin Markes' match against James Trotter, which Trotter won, 6-2, 7-5, giving Markes his first loss of dual match play at 10-1. Banzer trailed 3-1 and 4-2 in the first set, but recovered to tie at 4-4. The players exchanged wins until reaching 6-6 to go to a tiebreaker. Neither player led by more than a point until Banzer broke a 5-5 tie with two straight for the win. In the second set, Banzer was the one to jump out to a lead, first at 3-0 and then 4-1, before finishing the match at 6-2. After spending some time out of the lineup, Banzer has now played singles in the last three matches and is 6-2 in dual matches.
That set the stage for Telles, who was facing No. 69 Martin Joyce in third singles. Joyce captured the first set, 6-3, after opening with a 4-1 lead. Telles rebounded with a 6-3 win of his own in the second set with a run at the back end of the frame. After the players stayed on serve and alternated games to a 3-3 tie, Telles picked off the final three games by getting up a break at 5-3. He once again broke a 3-3 tie in the third set, although this time he had been down a game and ran off four straight for another 6-3 win to send a packed crowd into a frenzy and his teammates rushing to his court with the victory. It was Telles' fifth straight win and he is now 9-1 in dual match singles play, including three wins against ranked opponents.
No. 49 Scott was in position himself to possibly get the clinching point against No. 81 Kobelt in fourth singles. In a first set that featured six deuce point games, and Scott twice finding himself down two games, he ran off three straight wins to take a 6-5 lead. Kobelt then forced it into a tiebreaker where Scott jumped out to a 4-1 lead, but Kobelt responded to tie it 5-5. Again tied, 6-6, Scott claimed the final two points for the win. They were entangled in yet another tiebreaker in the second set when Telles won to leave their match unfinished. Scott had broken serve for a 5-4 lead in games just before that, however Kobelt broke back, leading to the tiebreaker.
At that point, No. 4 Sigsgaard had found his rhythm in first singles against No. 27 John McNally. Sigsgaard dropped the first set, 6-4, but recovered to take the last two games of the second set for a 7-5 win and then the first two games of the third set to lead before the match was left unfinished.
The Longhorns will now have eight days off before resuming their seven-match homestand against No. 9 Columbia on Friday, March 22 at 6 p.m. at the Texas Tennis Center.
No. 4 Texas 4, No. 1 Ohio State 1
Singles – Order of Finish (2,5,6,3)
1. #4 Christian Sigsgaard (UT) vs. #27 John McNally (OSU), 4-6, 7-5, 2-0, unfinished
2. #9 Yuya Ito (UT) def. #28 Kyle Seelig (OSU), 6-0, 6-3
3. Leonardo Telles (UT) def. #69 Martin Joyce (OSU), 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
4. #49 Harrison Scott (UT) vs. #81 Alex Kobelt (OSU), 7-6 (6), 6-6, unfinished
5. James Trotter (OSU) def. Colin Markes (UT), 6-2, 7-5
6. Rodrigo Banzer (UT) def. Hunter Tubert (OSU), 7-6 (5), 6-2
Doubles – Order of Finish (3,1,2)
1. #24 Martin Joyce/Hunter Tubert (OSU) def. #13 Harrison Scott/Christian Sigsgaard (UT), 7-5
2. Leonardo Telles/Colin Markes (UT) def. Alex Kobelt/James Trotter (OSU), 7-6 (4)
3. Yuya Ito/Chih Chi Huang (UT) def. Kyle Seelig/John McNally (OSU), 6-3
Players Mentioned
