Alabama Tennis Upsets No. 20 Arkansas
4/9/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- On the strength of three crucial tiebreak victories and a come-from-behind win by Joseph Jung, the Alabama men’s tennis team (10-11, 3-7 SEC) upset No. 20 Arkansas Sunday 4-3 at the UA Tennis Complex.
Jung won an all-important second-set tiebreaker over No. 22 Adrians Zguns to force a dual-match-deciding third set. Jung then broke Zguns three times in the third set, including the first two, to take a 4-0 lead. Then at 5-2 Jung held his serve to clinch the win for Alabama.
“I’m proud for Joe today because he’s been in a little bit of a slump,” Alabama head coach Billy Pate said, “but he gathered himself well mentally after the first set and played extremely well down the stretch.”
The win was Alabama’s fourth 4-3 victory of the season and improved the Tide to 8-3 at home. Jung’s match-clinching win also improved his record this season in three-set matches to 11-4.
“We’ve been talking about staying positive and keeping our heads up,” Pate said. “Today we believed in ourselves, even when things didn’t look great, and we rallied to get the win.”
Despite starting the match strongly by winning the doubles point, there was a time when the outcome didn’t look favorable for Alabama. Arkansas won four first sets and looked to be in control of the match. However, Alabama continued to battle and was able to climb its way back into the match.
Momentum began to swing in Alabama’s favor when Billy Mertz, playing at No. 5 singles, won a critical first-set tiebreaker over Colin Mascall. Mertz once trailed 4-1 in the tiebreaker, but came back to win 7-5. This followed another big first-set tiebreak win by Dan Buikema at No. 6 singles. Both Mertz and Buikema would go on to win their matches in straight sets, giving Jung a chance to clinch it.
Jung, too, however had to overcome a deficit just to get his match to tiebreaker in the second set. Zguns dominated the opening set, 6-3, and jumped up two breaks on Jung in the second. That’s when Jung’s comeback began.
In doubles, both teams claimed a comfortable win early and left the point up Alabama’s Mertz and Javier Bes and Arkansas’ Zguns and Blake Strode at No. 2. Mertz and Bes jumped up a pair of breaks early in the match, but Zguns and Strode would even things up at 4-4. Mertz and Bes then held serve twice and held break point in consecutive games, but couldn’t convert on either opportunity. Leading 7-6 and facing a break point, Alabama’s duo battled back to win the final four points and clinch Alabama’s eighth doubles point in its last 14 matches.
Alabama now has three matches remaining in the regular season. The Tide will travel to Brook Highland Country Club in Birmingham on Wednesday to take on Samford and UAB. That will lead up to the annual in-state battle with Auburn next Saturday at 5 p.m. at the UA Tennis Complex.
Tennis Match Results
Arkansas vs Alabama
Apr 09, 2006 at Tuscaloosa, Ala.
#45 Alabama 4, #20 Arkansas 3
Singles competition:
1. #114 Joseph Jung (ALA) def. #22 Adrians Zguns (ARK) 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2
2. #93 Rohan Gajjar (ARK) def. Javier Bes (ALA) 6-0, 6-2
3. #57 Matt Roberts (ARK) def. Mathieu Thibaudeau (ALA) 6-3, 6-0
4. #124 Blake Strode (ARK) def. Sammy Struyf (ALA) 6-4, 3-6, 6-1
5. Billy Mertz (ALA) def. Colin Mascall (ARK) 7-6 (7-5), 6-4
6. Dan Buikema (ALA) def. Austin King (ARK) 7-6, 6-4
Doubles competition:
1. Matt Roberts/Rohan Gajjar (ARK) def. Joseph Jung/Mathieu Thibaudeau (ALA) 8-5
2. Billy Mertz/Javier Bes (ALA) def. #44 Adrians Zguns/Blake Strode (ARK) 8-6
3. Dan Buikema/Andrew Felsenthal (ALA) def. Colin Mascall/Austin King (ARK) 8-3
Match Notes:
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (3,2,6,5,4,1)
