The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
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UCLA
No. 4 Men’s Tennis downs No. 16 UCLA, 4-2
02.14.2020 | Men's Tennis
The third-seed Longhorns advance to the quarterfinals of the ITA National Indoor Championships for the second-straight year.
Madison, Wis. – No. 4 Texas Men's team downed No. 16 UCLA, 4-2, in the opening round of the ITA National Indoor Championships on Friday in Madison. The third-seeded Longhorns advance to the quarterfinals for the second-straight year and will face 11th-seeded No. 13 Michigan on Saturday at 9 a.m. CT.
Texas used singles wins by freshmen Cleeve Harper at No. 6 and Eliot Spizzirri at No. 4, and seniors No. 2 Yuya Ito at No. 1 and No. 12 Christian Sigsgaard at No. 2 to rally from a 2-0 deficit for the victory.
"It was a very good team win," head coach Bruce Berque said. "Obviously, UCLA is another blue blood tennis program, so we have a lot of respect for them. To come out with a win against a good UCLA team is a big accomplishment for our guys. It was comforting to know we had two seniors out on the court in Christian and Yuya when things were tight at the end. Today they both played really good players, and they both came through in some pretty clutch moments and secured the win for us. Of course, Eliot continued to play good tennis, and Cleeve got the first point for us. He's been playing some really good tennis and competing at a high level, so that was big for us, as well. Chih Chi (Huang) didn't finish his match, but it was another great example of fighting until the end down a set and 5-1, and he was able to pull through and get the second set."
Harper captured the Longhorns' first point after a 6-2, 6-3 win over Eric Hahn on the strength of winning six out of seven deuce points during the match. The first two came on the opening two games as Harper held and then broke for a 2-0 lead. Hahn answered with the next two games, but Harper took it from there with a run of eight-straight games, to give him a 6-2 win in the first set and a 4-0 lead in the second. Two of those first four games in the second were also on deuce points before Hahn got one of his own on a break and then held to pull within 4-2. The next two games stayed on serve before Harper secured the last of his deuce points on a break for the 6-3 victory, cutting the UCLA team lead to 2-1.
Fellow freshman Spizzirri was up next and was able to even the overall match with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Ben Goldberg. Like Harper, Spizzirri got out to a 2-0 lead, and Goldberg responded to even it after a deuce point in the fourth game. Spizzirri reestablished with by taking the next two games for a 4-2 lead with the rest of the set staying on serve to a 6-4 win. Again like Harper, Spizzirri opened the second set with a 4-0 run. He then extended to a 5-1 lead on a deuce point hold. Goldberg picked up the next two games, but Spizzirri finished it off on a deuce point at 6-3.
All three of the remaining matches found themselves in second-set tiebreakers. Sophomore Chih Chi Huang gave a great effort in reaching his after dropping his first set, 6-3, and then trailing, 5-1, in the second against Patrick Zahraj at No. 5. Huang rattled off five-straight wins, including two deuce points, to even it before Zahraj briefly reclaimed the lead on the way to Huang forcing the tiebreaker. That frame stayed close throughout with Huang staving off one match point down, 8-7, and winning the final three points for a 10-8 victory to send it to a third set. Huang's match eventually went unfinished with him trailing 4-3, but it was enough to provide support to Ito and Sigsgaard down the stretch.
Ito finished first with a top-10 win against No. 6 Keegan Smith, 6-4, 6-7 (1), 6-1, to give Texas a 3-2 lead. The first set stayed on serve all the way to 5-4 for Ito when he got the break he needed to take it, 6-4. The second set opened with Ito serving, and the players split a pair of breaks in the first two games. After a pair of holds, they again split two breaks, to get back even at 3-3. The set stayed on serve from there, leading to a tiebreaker, which Smith captured, 7-1, to go to a third. However, outside of a hold for Smith on a deuce point in the second game, that frame would belong to Ito. He closed on a 5-0 run, two of which came on deuce points, and he won his 30th match in his last 33 with 10 of those over top-25 opponents. Ito also secured his 105th career singles win at Texas, which is ties him for sixth all-time.
For Sigsgaard, his 100th-career singles win would clinch the victory for the Longhorns as he downed No. 10 Govind Nanda, 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-2. He now sits 13th on the all-time wins list at UT. Sigsgaard broke in the opening game of the first set and then held for a 2-0 lead. The rest of the set stayed on serve with Sigsgaard taking the last game on a deuce point. The first two games of the second set were decided on deuce points breaks, first by Sigsgaard then by Nanda. After a pair of holds, Sigsgaard broke again for a 3-2 lead that he extended to 4-2 on serve. Again, the set stayed on serve up to 5-4, but Nanda fought off a deuce match point and grabbed a break to even it. The final two games stayed on serve leading to the tiebreaker where Sigsgaard got out to a 4-1 lead, but Nanda answered with a 4-1 run of his own to even it, including deflecting a match point at 5-4. He would have to do so two more times at 6-5 and 7-6 before taking a lead of his own at 8-7 and winning at 9-7 to force a third set. That frame opened with three holds, the last of which was on a deuce point, to give Sigsgaard a 2-1 lead. He then broke on another deuce point and held to move out to a 4-1 advantage. Nanda got one game back before Sigsgaard closed it out at 6-2 for the clinch and 4-2 win for Texas.
Earlier in the day, UCLA had taken its 2-0 lead on the strength of the doubles point and a 6-2, 6-3 win for Drew Baird over No. 37 Siem Woldeab at No. 3 singles. In doubles, each team captured a 6-2 win with the first for Nanda and Smith over No. 11 Sigsgaard and Woldeab at No. 1, and the second for Harper and Ito over Zahraj and Bryce Pereira at No. 3. Baird and Connor Rapp took the deciding match, 6-3, at No. 2 over Huang and Spizzirri.
Prior to Texas, Berque served 10 seasons (2005-14) as the head coach at Michigan. He took the Wolverines to the NCAA Championships in his final nine seasons in Ann Arbor and to the NCAA round of 16 in 2008.
"Michigan is playing really good tennis," Berque said. "They have a really good program and have some really good wins, so they're battle tested this year. They've had good close wins against very good teams and one of them came today against Texas A&M, so if they can beat them, they're certainly playing good tennis."
No. 4 Texas 4, No. 16 UCLA 2
Singles – Order of Finish (3,6,4,1,2)
1. No. 2 Yuya Ito (UT) def. No. 6 Keegan Smith (UCLA), 6-4, 6-7 (1), 6-1
2. No. 12 Christian Sigsgaard (UT) def. No. 10 Govind Nanda (UCLA), 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-2
3. Drew Baird (UCLA) def. No. 37 Siem Woldeab (UT), 6-2, 6-3
4. Eliot Spizzirri (UT) def. Ben Goldberg (UCLA), 6-4, 6-3
5. Chih Chi Huang (UT) vs. Patrick Zahraj (UCLA), 3-6, 7-6 (8), 3-4, unf.
6. Cleeve Harper (UT) def. Eric Hahn (UCLA), 6-2, 6-3
Doubles – Order of Finish (1,3,2)
1. Govind Nanda/Keegan Smith (UCLA) def. No. 11 Christian Sigsgaard/Siem Woldeab (UT), 6-2
2. Drew Baird/Connor Rapp (UCLA) def. Chih Chi Huang/Eliot Spizzirri (UT), 6-3
3. Yuya Ito/Cleeve Harper (UT) def. Bryce Pereira/Patrick Zahraj (UCLA), 6-2
(UT)
Players Mentioned
