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No. 4 Men’s Tennis opens Big 12 play with 7-0 sweep of No. 29 Texas Tech
03.29.2019 | Men's Tennis
The Longhorns won the first of five conference matches to end the regular season and are now 18-2 overall.
Austin, Texas – The No. 4 Texas Men's Tennis team opened Big 12 Conference play with a 7-0 sweep of No. 29 Texas Tech on Friday night at the Texas Tennis Center. The win moved the Longhorns to 18-2 overall this season, equaling its best record through 20 matches since 2010.
"Texas Tech is a good team, and we definitely have respect for them," interim head coach Bruce Berque said. "They beat us last year at their place, and to come out and beat them 7-0 in the first Big 12 match of the year is definitely an effort the team should feel really good about."
Texas brought energy right out of the gate in doubles, as freshman Chih Chi Huang and junior Yuya Ito got off to a fast start with a 6-2 win over Ilgiz Valiev and Matheus Leite at third doubles. After dropping the first game, the Longhorn duo took three in a row for the 3-1 lead. The Red Raiders pulled within 3-2, but Huang and Ito finished it from there and are now 11-3 in dual matches this season.
Senior Colin Markes and Leonardo Telles clinched the point with a 6-3 win over Tommy Mylnikov and Jackson Cobb at second doubles. They also got out to a 3-1 lead, but Mylnikov and Cobb came back to even it, 3-3. However, Markes and Telles were also able to take it from there with three straight games for the clinch to move to 12-3 in dual matches. The No. 7 pair senior Harrison Scott and junior Christian Sigsgaard were leading No. 9 Bjorn Thomson and Parker Wynn, 5-4, when their match went unfinished.
No. 9 Ito kept the momentum going with a fast start in singles by taking a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Mylnikov in second singles. Ito jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first set and surrendered his only game on a deuce point. The second set was more of the same as he led 4-0 before again dropping his only game on a deuce point. The win was Ito's eighth in a row and moves his team-best win total to 18 in dual match play with only one loss.
The Longhorns' third point came with Rodrigo Banzer returning to the singles lineup at the sixth position and earning an equally impressive win over Artem Kapshuk, 6-2, 6-0. In both sets, Banzer captured deuce points for his fourth and fifth game wins. In finishing the first set at 6-2, he rolled off seven straight games for the victory. He is now 7-2 in dual matches this season.
Huang came away with the clinching point by topping Franco Ribero, 6-2, 6-2, at fifth singles. In the first set he established a 2-1 lead by breaking Ribero on a deuce point. He broke on a deuce point again for a 5-2 lead before the win. In the second set, he got out to a 2-0 lead, and after dropping a game, won the next three to go up 5-1 en route to his 11th dual match victory of the season.
The teams played out the singles matches with No. 104 Telles picking up the fifth point by downing Valiev, 7-6 (5), 6-1. It looked as though Telles was going to keep the quick pace early as he posted a 5-0 lead in the first set, but after Telles dropped two deuce-point games, Valiev was able to come all the way back for a 5-5 tie. Telles rebounded for a 6-5 lead, but the set went to a tiebreaker where he found himself down, 2-0. Five points later, he was up 5-2 and held on for the 7-5 win. In the second set, Telles lost the first game, but then re-established himself and ran off six straight games for the win, which was his seventh straight and made him 11-1 in dual matches.
The night finished on a pair of third-set super breakers. First was No. 6 Sigsgaard who split a pair of 6-4 sets against No. 99 Parker Wynn. In the tiebreaker, Sigsgaard dashed out to a 6-0 lead on his way to a 10-5 victory. In dual match play, he has now faced 14 ranked opponents and is 8-4 with two unfinished. That left the sweep in the hands of No. 59 Scott against Thomson. Scott rallied from a 5-3 deficit in the first set to a 7-5 win, but Thomson answered with a 6-4 win of his own in the second. Like Sigsgaard, Scott came out of the gates quickly in the tiebreaker with leads of 4-0 and 6-1 before winning, 10-3.
The Longhorns next play their last home regular season match of the season when they host Baylor on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. for Senior Day. It can also be seen live on Longhorn Network.
No. 4 Texas 7, No. 29 Texas Tech 0
Singles – Order of Finish (2,6,5,3,1,4)
1. #6 Christian Sigsgaard (UT) def. #99 Parker Wynn (TTU), 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-5)
2. #9 Yuya Ito (UT) def. Tommy Mylnikov (TTU), 6-1, 6-1
3. #104 Leonardo Telles (UT) def. Ilgiz Valiev (TTU),7-6 (7-5), 6-1
4. #59 Harrison Scott (UT) def. Bjorn Thomson (TTU), 7-5, 4-6, 1-0 (10-3)
5. Chih Chi Huang (UT) def. Franco Ribero (TTU), 6-2, 6-2
6. Rodrigo Banzer (UT) def. Artem Kapshuk (TTU), 6-2, 6-0
Doubles – Order of Finish (3,2)
1. #7 Harrison Scott/Christian Sigsgaard (UT) vs. #9 Bjorn Thomson/Parker Wynn (TTU), 5-4, unf.
2. Colin Markes/Leonardo Telles (UT) def. Jackson Cobb/Tommy Mylnikov (TTU), 6-3
3. Chih Chi Huang/Yuya Ito (UT) def. Matheus Leite/Ilgiz Valiev (TTU), 6-2
Players Mentioned
