Men’s tennis finishes 2–3 in first tournament of the season
In a three day tournament at Gonzaga University, Nevada men’s tennis defeated two out of the three teams they faced.
Going into this tournament, Nevada stood 3–0 overall. Juan Batalla, Mountain West Player of the Week on Jan. 19, went 4–0 with two victories in singles and two in doubles matches.
Nevada’s first opponent was Gonzaga, who they fell to 4–0.
Nevada struggled the most in the doubles’ matches. Juan Batalla and Ambroise Marchand fell to Matthew Hollingworth and Sasha Trkulja 3–6. Nevada’s number two Matheo Coupu and Loris Zisswiller were only one behind at 4–5 against Leon Roider and Oliver Andersson. Delmas N’Tcha and Gilad Tamar went 2–6 against number three Tom Hann and Arthus De la Bassetiere.
The singles’ matches had a little more success for Nevada, although not enough to add a point to the board. Coupu won his second set against Trkulja 6–4, but lost his other two 3–6 and 3–2. Gonzaga’s Hollingworth beat Batalla 6–2 in their two sets. Zisswiller had a hard competition against Andersson; Zisswiller did not get a point in the first set, 0–6, but was able to put up two points in the next, 2–6. Roider defeated Nevada’s Satchel Benn 6–4 in two sets.
Day two of the tournament was a lot better for Nevada as they defeated Seattle University 6–1.
Nevada’s doubles fought hard and won two of the three doubles matches. Coupu and Zisswiller were paired together and beat number two Michael Frank and Mats Krause in a close match ending 7–6. Number three, Benn and Sasha Nicolau, also won their match 6–4.
Marchand and Batalla unfortunately were not able to win the third doubles match. They fell 6–3 against Filip Stipic and Veselin Kiselkov.
The men went five-for-six in their singles matches. Coupu, Benn, Marchand, Tamar and Nicolau beat their opponents in two sets. Batalla went into three sets against Stipic. Batalla won the first 7–6, lost the second 6–4 and lost the third 1–0.
The final day of the tournament, Nevada faced the Idaho Vandals. Nevada won by a close 4–3.
Out of three doubles games, Nevada won one. Benn and Tamar defeated Adam Taylor and Alejandro Salvador 6–2. Batalla and Marchcand unfortunately went down 0–4 and Coupu and Zisswiller had a close match at 5–7.
The singles matches are where Nevada pulled through with a win. Batalla won in two sets, 6–3 and 6–4. Benn took his opponent into three sets winning 6–3, 3–6 and 6–1. Zisswiller went 6–3 in his first set against Salvador, but sweeped him 6–0 in the second. N’Tcha defeated number six Vivek Ramesh 6–4 and 6–2.
The men are now 5–1 overall and will compete Jan. 29 against UC Davis.
Kelsey Middleton can be reached at kelseymiddleton@sagebrush.unr.edu or on Twitter @kelsmiddleunr
Originally published at http://nevadasagebrush.com.
