The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Oklahoma
No. 2 Men’s Tennis advances to Big 12 Championship final
04.20.2019 | Men's Tennis
The Longhorns defeated No. 25 Oklahoma for the second time this week and will now face Baylor at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Austin, Texas – The No. 2 Texas Men's Tennis team advanced to the Big 12 Championship final by defeating No. 25 Oklahoma for the second time this week, 4-2, at the Jayhawk Tennis Center in Lawrence, Kansas on Saturday.
The two teams had closed the regular season in Norman this past Sunday with the Longhorns taking that match, 5-2. Texas will now play 2-seed No. 8 Baylor tomorrow at 1 p.m. for the title. The Longhorns downed the Bears, 4-3, in their last meeting on March 31 in Austin.
Like the previous meeting with Oklahoma, Texas was able to capture the doubles point. The No. 6 pair of senior Harrison Scott and junior Christian Sigsgaard avenged their loss to the No. 53 duo of Alex Bakshi and Stefano Tsorotiotis at first doubles, breaking on the opening game and establishing early leads of 2-0 and 3-1. The Sooners tandem pulled to within 4-3, but Scott and Sigsgaard held serve for 5-3 and then finished it like they started with a break for the 6-3 win, improving their dual match record to 10-5.
Second doubles also reversed itself, this time in favor of Oklahoma. After a win last time out, seniors Colin Markes and Leonardo Telles were tied with Jake Van Emburgh and Ferran Calvo, 3-3, but the Sooners finished the match on a 3-0 run for a 6-3 final to give each team a win. That left it to third doubles where freshman Chih Chi Huang and junior Yuya Ito found themselves down, 5-3, but came storming back to reel off four straight games against Spencer Papa and Max Stewart for the 7-5 victory and 1-0 lead for Texas. Huang and Ito are now 13-4 in dual match play this season.
"It was definitely a hard-fought win for the team today," interim head coach Bruce Berque said. "The doubles point was pivotal as Yuya and Chih Chi really stepped up when their backs were against the wall. In singles, we had very strong performances by Christian, Harrison, Rodrigo (Banzer), and Colin. Oklahoma is an outstanding team, and we feel fortunate to have come out on top. We know we are going to have to have our A game tomorrow to have a shot at the championship."
Once again, senior Rodrigo Banzer was inserted into the sixth spot in singles, and once again, he pulled through with a win. He topped Tsorotiotis in a decisive fashion, 6-2, 6-1, to move the Texas lead to 2-0. In both sets, he generated 4-1 leads and did not look back. He is now 10-3 in dual match singles play this season.
No. 9 Sigsgaard followed behind Banzer with his second win this week over No. 36 Papa. Last time, the players went to three sets and a superbreaker, however this time Sigsgaard would get it done in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3. The first set stayed on serve up to 3-3 when Sigsgaard secured a break to go up, 4-3. It stayed on serve from there for a 5-3 lead and 6-4 win. In the second set, Sigsgaard broke in the opening game, and Papa followed with a 3-0 run, but Sigsgaard would take it from there and extend the Texas lead to 3-0. He has now faced 19 ranked opponents and is 12-5 with two unfinished.
Oklahoma would claim the next two points at second and third singles, flipping the positions of No. 62 Bakshi and No. 80 Van Emburgh from the previous match and getting identical 6-4, 6-3 victories. Against Bakshi at the second spot, No. 7 Ito dropped just his second singles match of the season against 22 wins. The two sets Ito lost were also just the sixth and seventh sets he had dropped all season. Van Emburgh then played third singles against No. 73 Telles and won by the same score to cut the Texas lead to 3-2.
However, like Sigsgaard, Markes would face the same opponent as last time in Mason Beiler in the same spot and he would also produce the same result. Not only was it the fourth singles match of the day decided by a 6-4, 6-3 score, that was also the same score Markes had defeated Beiler by last time out. For Markes, it pushed his dual match singles record to 16-2, which is the second most wins on the team behind Ito. He had been even with No. 53 Scott coming into the match, but Scott's singles match was left unfinished at not quite the same score, but at 4-6, 6-3 on its way to a third set when play stopped.
Texas is 23-2 this season, equaling its best mark through 25 matches since 2010, and now faces second-seeded No. 8 Baylor in tomorrow's final at 1 p.m. The Longhorns are looking for their first back-to-back Big 12 Championship titles and their sixth overall.
No. 2 Texas 4, No. 25 Oklahoma 2
Singles – Order of Finish (6,1,2,3,5)
1. #9 Christian Sigsgaard (UT) def. #36 Spencer Papa (OU), 6-4, 6-3
2. #62 Alex Bakshi (OU) def. #7 Yuya Ito (UT), 6-4, 6-3
3. #80 Jake Van Emburgh (OU) def. #73 Leonardo Telles (UT), 6-4, 6-3
4. #53 Harrison Scott (UT) vs. Ferran Calvo (OU), 4-6, 6-3, unf.
5. Colin Markes (UT) def. Mason Beiler (OU), 6-4, 6-3
6. Rodrigo Banzer (UT) def. Stefano Tsorotiotis (OU), 6-2, 6-1
Doubles – Order of Finish (1,2,3)
1. #6 Harrison Scott/Christian Sigsgaard (UT) def. #53 Alex Bakshi/Stefano Tsorotiotis (OU), 6-3
2. Jake Van Emburgh/Ferran Calvo (OU) def. Colin Markes/Leonardo Telles (UT), 6-3
3. Chih Chi Huang/Yuya Ito (UT) def. Spencer Papa/Max Stewart (OU), 7-5
(UT)
Players Mentioned
