Coming off a win against USC, Arizona men’s tennis was looking for the weekend sweep. The Wildcats took on the UCF Knights in the ITA Kickoff Championship.
In a tightly contested battle, Arizona was unable to beat Big 12 foe UCF, as it lost 4-3.
Doubles
It was early domination for Arizona to start the doubles. The duo of Jay Friend and Eric Padgham dominated in their match, winning 6-1.
However, the Knights earned the doubles point, as Filip Gustafsson and Cole Stelse lost 4-6. Followed by Colton Smith and Iñaki Cabrera-Bello losing 4-6 as well.
This would put the pressure on the Wildcats to win four of the single matches, as UCF would take a 1-0 lead into the singles.
Doubles Scoring:
Court 1: Smith & Cabrera-Bello
0-1, 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 2-3, 2-4, 3-4, 3-5, 4-5, 4-6
Court 2: Friend & Padgham
1-0, 2-0, 3-0, 3-1, 4-1, 5-1, 6-1
Court 3: Gustafsson & Stelse
1-0, 1-1, 2-1, 2-2, 3-2, 3-3, 4-3, 4-4, 4-5, 4-6
Singles
In the first set of singles, it was Smith who earned a dominating 6-1 win. Zoran Ludowski, however, was unable to win his first set, losing 1-6.
Friend earned a hard fought set win, coming down from 1-3 to win 6-3. Followed by Casper Christensen with a 6-1 set win.
It was a back and forth set for Alexander Rozin, but he was able to take the first set win 6-4. Gustafsson was unable to win his first set, losing another back and forth set 5-7.
Smith and Friend gave Arizona the 2-1 overall lead with 6-3 and 6-1 wins, respectively, in the second set of their single matches.
Christensen would essentially get swept in the second set, losing 1-6. However, a 2-1 overall lead would be extended with a 6-1 second set win by Rozin.
With a 3-1 lead for Arizona, it was up to Ludowski, Christensen, or Gustafsson to earn the fourth overall match point for the Wildcats. Ludowksi was unable to, losing his second set 4-6.
Gustafsson was unable to win his second set, losing 3-6 and tying the overall match at 3-3. It came down to Christensen in his third singles set.
Despite coming back from a 1-3 deficit, Christensen was unable to respond and would lose his third set 3-6. This gave UCF the 4-3 overall match win.
Singles Scoring:
Court 1: Smith 2-0
Set 1: 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, 5-1, 6-1
Set 2: 1-0, 1-1, 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, 4-2, 4-3, 5-3, 6-3
Court 2: Friend 2-0
Set 1: 0-1, 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 2-3, 3-3, 4-3, 5-3, 6-3
Set 2: 1-0, 1-1, 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, 5-1, 6-1
Court 3: Ludoski 0-2
Set 1: 0-1, 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, 1-6
Set 2: 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, 2-2, 3-2, 3-3, 4-3, 4-4, 4-5, 4-6
Court 4: Christensen 1-2
Set 1: 1-0, 1-1, 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, 5-1, 6-1
Set 2: 0-1, 0-2, 0-3, 0-4, 0-5, 1-5, 1-6
Set 3: 1-0, 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 2-3, 3-3, 3-4, 3-5, 3-6
Court 5: Gustafsson 0-2
Set 1: 0-1, 1-1, 1-2, 2-2, 2-3, 3-3, 3-4, 4-4, 4-5, 5-5, 5-6, 5-7
Set 2: 0-1, 1-1, 1-2, 2-2, 3-2, 3-3, 3-4, 3-5, 3-6
Court 6: Rozin 2-0
Set 1: 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, 2-2, 3-2, 3-3, 4-3, 4-4, 5-4, 6-4
Set 2: 1-0, 1-1, 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, 5-1, 6-1
Arizona’s next match will be against Utah State on Friday, February 7 at 10:00 a.m.
