The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Tulane
No. 3 Men’s Tennis downs No. 43 Tulane, 5-2
03.06.2020 | Men's Tennis
The Longhorns earned a win in the first of three matches this weekend and advanced their record to 11-3 this season.
Austin, Texas – The No. 3 Texas Men's Tennis team downed No. 43 Tulane, 5-2, on Friday night at the Texas Tennis Center. The win was the first of three matches this weekend and advanced the Longhorns' record to 11-3 this season.
Texas opened the match with doubles wins at No. 1 by seniors Yuya Ito and Christian Sigsgaard, and at No. 2 by freshmen Jacob Bullard and Eliot Spizzirri to secure the point. That was followed by singles wins at No. 2 by No. 2 Ito, at No. 5 by sophomore Chih Chi Huang, at No. 3 by freshman No. 44 Siem Woldeab, and at No. 4 by Spizzirri.
"It was a good win," head coach Bruce Berque said. "We have a lot of respect for Tulane as a program and think the coaches do a great job. Last time, they had a pretty similar lineup that came in and beat us at home pretty badly, so we knew we had to be ready. I think we did a good job getting a start in doubles, and I think a lot of our guys played well, but some struggled, and that's typical for a match, but I think everyone kept a positive attitude, and overall, we'll take the win and try to progress and play even better on Sunday. Tulsa and Rice are two pretty good teams to be playing in a doubleheader, and hopefully we'll find a way to get fresh for that one and play good, aggressive tennis."
After the Longhorns took a 1-0 lead with the doubles point, Ito led things off in singles with a straight-sets top-50 win over No. 50 Hamish Stewart, 6-4, 6-1. It was his 109th career singles win at Texas, which ties him for fifth all-time at UT. It was also his 34th win in his last 39 singles matches with 20 of those wins coming against top-50 opponents. Each player held serve to open the match, but Stewart took a 3-1 lead with a break and a hold in the next two games. Ito answered with a 3-0 run of his own to retake the lead, and after Stewart equalized at 4-4, Ito ran of seven-straight games, starting with two deuce points, to take the first set and establish a 5-0 edge in the second. Stewart reclaimed one game on serve, but Ito then closed it for a 2-0 Texas lead.
Huang was next and put together a run of his own from the outset of his 6-0, 6-2 win over Tim Ruetzel by sweeping the first set, including deuce points in games four and five. Ruetzel finally broke the streak with a deuce-point hold to open the second set, but Huang resumed his streak with five more games for a 5-1 lead. Ruetzel got one more game on serve, but Huang finished it on serve and moved the overall lead to 3-0.
The clincher came from Woldeab with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Luis Erlenbusch. The first set stayed on serve to a 4-3 lead for Woldeab when he picked up the break he needed on a deuce point, followed by a hold to win the frame. Erlenbusch opened the second set by taking the first two games on a hold and a break, but Woldeab answered with two of his own to put it back on serve. It stayed that way to a 4-4 tie when Woldeab once again broke late and then held on a deuce point to take the match.
That left three matches on the court, including No. 6 Sigsgaard at No. 1, Spizzirri at No. 4 and freshman Cleeve Harper at No. 6. After Harper fell in his match, 6-2, 7-5, to Akos Kotorman, the two remaining matches both went to second-set tiebreakers after the Longhorns had won the first set in each.
Spizzirri finished first with a win in his tiebreaker as part of a 6-3, 7-6 (9) victory over Dane Esses. Spizzirri opened the match by taking the first two games with a hold and a break, and after Esses broke back, the players exchanged deuce-point wins, leaving Spizzirri with a 3-2 lead, which he expanded to 5-2 on another deuce point. Esses pulled within 5-3, but Spizzirri closed the set in the next game. The second set was back and forth with Esses winning the opening game on serve on a deuce point. Spizzirri then took the next two, but Esses evened it on another deuce at 2-2, and did so again at 3-3, before retaking the lead at 4-3. The players alternated wins in the next four games, including the first three on deuce points to send it to the breaker. There, Spizzirri jumped out to a 4-1 lead, but Esses later used a 3-0 run to tie at 6-6. Despite the breaker extending all the way to 11-9, Spizzirri never relinquished the lead as the players exchanged points up to a 10-9 advantage for him. He then claimed the match on the next point and gave Texas a 5-2 overall lead.
The final match between Sigsgaard and No. 72 Ewan Moore looked to be in Sigsgaard's control with him up a set (6-4) and 5-2 in the second, but Moore used two breaks to go on a 4-0 run and claim a 6-5 lead on a deuce point. Sigsgaard rebounded to force the tiebreaker and take a 3-1 lead in it, but Moore evened the frame at 3-3, and the players stayed within a point of each other up until the end, including two set points for Moore and one match point for Sigsgaard at 8-7. However, at that point Moore was able to put together a 3-0 run to send the match to a third-set superbreaker. With the players tied at 3-3 there, Moore used a 5-0 run to take the advantage before finishing at 10-4 in the 4-6, 7-6 (8), 1-0 (4) final.
Earlier, Texas swept the doubles matches starting with a 6-3 win for No. 9 Ito and Sigsgaard over Kotorman and Stewart at No. 1. The Longhorn duo opened the first two games with a hold and a break for a 2-0 lead before the Green Wave got one game back on a break. Texas grabbed two more games with a break and a hold for a 4-1 edge, and the rest of the match stayed on serve for the win.
The Longhorns held 5-3 leads in both of the remaining matches, but it was Bullard and Spizzirri who reached the finish line first with a 6-3 win over Moore and Benji Jacobson at No. 2. The first two games both stayed on serve starting with Texas, but were also both decided on deuce points. Bullard and Spizzirri then went on a 3-0 run, picking up one break, for a 4-1 lead, however Tulane answered with the next two games to get back on serve. That wouldn't last long as the Longhorns broke back on a deuce point and then held to secure the point. No. 3 doubles followed the same scoring pattern as No. 1, but was left unfinished with Harper and Huang leading Erlenbusch and Esses, 5-3.
The Longhorns are back in action on Sunday with their second doubleheader of the season and the second in the last two weeks when they face Tulsa at 11 a.m. CT, followed by Rice at 3:30 p.m. CT at the Texas Tennis Center.
No. 3 Texas 5, No. 43 Tulane 2
Singles – Order of Finish (2,5,3,6,4,1)
1. No. 72 Ewan Moore (TLN) def. No. 6 Christian Sigsgaard (UT), 4-6, 7-6 (8), 1-0 (4)
2. No. 2 Yuya Ito (UT) def. No. 50 Hamish Stewart (TLN), 6-4, 6-1
3. No. 44 Siem Woldeab (UT) def. Luis Erlenbusch (TLN), 6-3, 6-4
4. Eliot Spizzirri (UT) def. Dane Esses (TLN), 6-3, 7-6 (9)
5. Chih Chi Huang (UT) def. Tim Ruetzel (TLN), 6-0, 6-2
6. Akos Kotorman (TLN) def. Cleeve Harper (UT), 6-2, 7-5
Doubles – Order of Finish (1,2)
1. No. 9 Yuya Ito/Christian Sigsgaard (UT) def. Hamish Stewart/Akos Kotorman (TLN), 6-3
2. Jacob Bullard/Eliot Spizzirri (UT) def. Benji Jacobson/Ewan Moore (TLN), 6-3
3. Cleeve Harper/Chih Chi Huang (UT) vs. Luis Erlenbusch/Dane Esses (TLN), 5-3, unf.
(UT)
Players Mentioned
