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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Baylor
No. 20 Rebels Take Down No. 4 Baylor
2/6/2016 | Men's Tennis
WACO, Texas - On the road in a hostile environment, the No. 20 ranked Ole Miss men's tennis team built a 3-1 lead against No. 4 Baylor, but the Bears tied it up, before sophomore Gustav Hansson delivered the final blow to give the Rebels a 4-3 win Saturday night at the Hawkins Indoor Center.
Ole Miss (3-1) rallied to win the doubles point and got straight set singles wins from Ricardo Jorge and Vinod Gowda at five and six to put the Rebels one win away from the upset. Baylor earned straight set wins on courts one and four and a three-setter at two to tie it (3-3), leaving the decision on the racquet of Hansson against Baylor's Felipe Rios at No. 3 singles.
Hansson won the first set 6-3, but was broken serving 4-5 in the second to hand the set to Rios, 6-4. Hansson got an early break in the final set and was serving 3-2 before he got overruled for the third time in the match, resulting in a point penalty and 3-3. With the crowd revved up Hansson kept his composure and broke again for 4-3. Both players held their serve for 5-4 and Hansson walked back on the court after the break to serve it out. He led 40-15, before Rios won the next two points to get to a deciding point. Hansson hit a great serve and Rios sailed the return long, as the Rebels mobbed Hansson and celebrated on the court.
In the beginning, Baylor came out fired up behind a packed house and gained quick leads on all three doubles courts. Baylor held their lead at No. 1 winning 6-2. On court two, Jorge and Stefan Lindmark trailed 0-3 before reeling off six straight games to take it 6-3. The Rebels clinched the point when Fabian Fallert and Grey Hamilton rallied from a 2-4 deficit for a 6-4 win at No. 3 doubles.
Jorge carried the momentum over from his doubles win to the singles court, downing Baylor's Jimmy Bedneck 6-2, 6-1 at No. 5 to make it 2-0 Rebels.
Baylor got on the board when All-American Julian Lenz, who was ranked in the top five all last year, defeated Lindmark 7-5, 6-3 at No. 1 singles.
Gowda put the Rebels within one of clinching with a 6-2, 6-3 win against Tommy Podvinski at No. 6 singles.
Needing just one more match for the win, Baylor would not make it easy on the Rebels. After dropping the first set to Will Little, Fallert had multiple set points in the second set tiebreaker, but Little rallied to win it and take the match 6-3, 7-6(6) to pull his team within one, 3-2.
Freshman Filip Kraljevic rallied to get his match against 59th-ranked Max Tchoutakian at No. 2 singles to a third set and broke for an early lead. Tchoutakian turned it around quickly though and went on to win 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to square the match sending all eyes to court three for the final act.
Notables…
• This marked the seventh meeting between the two schools with Ole Miss taking the 4-3 lead in the series with the win.
• It is also the Rebels first win in Waco since 1987.
• It marked the Rebels' first top five win since 2009, when they posted back-to-back top five wins against then No. 4 Georgia and No. 5 Tennessee.
• Gustav Hansson clinched his second straight 4-3 win for the Rebels, after also clinching the win over Texas in the consolation match at the ITA Kick-Off.
• Fabian Fallert and Grey Hamilton improved to 5-2 overall and 3-1 in dual matches.
• Stefan Lindmark and Ricardo Jorge improved to 3-0.
Quoting Head Coach Toby Hansson…
"What a great college tennis match. It was a fantastic team effort. I am really happy for everybody on the team. We've put in so much work and this is huge for us."
On overcoming a slow start…
"We got off to a slow start in doubles, but the guys did a tremendous job of composing themselves and turning it around to shift the momentum in our favor. In singles everyone battled hard and we were able to get two straight set wins at five and six to maintain momentum. We were in control for a large part of the match, but credit Baylor. They did a great job of bouncing back and making it close. In the end we responded well when Baylor got back in it. Gus was able to stay calm and continue to fight as hard as he could."
On feeling of having Gus out there to close it out…
"We really have a lot of confidence in Gus. He went down a few times and was physically hurting, but he was able to overcome it. He's tough. He's been there before for the team and we knew he could get it done. He has a tremendous attitude and works really hard. We are really happy for him and for the team."
Sophomore Gustav Hansson on clinching the win…
"I saw Filip and Fabi were fighting, and then unfortunately both lost. I got an early break [in the third] but then I got overruled; the crowd went crazy. It was tough and I was cramping, but I just tried to stay calm and play one ball at a time. I just tried to focus on each point. It was a great effort by everyone. We continue to get better. We have great team chemistry, everyone is working hard and it's a lot of fun."
For more information on Ole Miss Men's Tennis, follow the Rebels on Twitter @OleMissMTennis, on Facebook at OleMissMTennis and on Instagram at OleMissMTennis, follow Coach Hansson on Twitter at @TennisToby.
#20 Ole Miss 4, #4 Baylor 3
Doubles
1. Lenz/Little (BU) def. Babic/Kraljevic (OM) 6-2
2. Lindmark/Jorge (OM) def. Tchoutakian/Podvinski (BU) 6-3
3. Fallert/Hamilton (OM) def. Rios/Bendeck (BU) 6-4
Order of Finish: 1, 3, 2
Singles
1. Julian Lenz (BU) def. #36 Stefan Lindmark (OM) 7-5, 6-3
2. #59 Max Tchoutakian (BU) def. Filip Kraljevic (OM) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
3. Gustav Hansson (OM) def. Felipe Rios (BU) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4
4. Will Little (BU) def. Fabian Fallert (OM) 6-3, 7-6(6)
5. Ricardo Jorge (OM) def. Jimmy Bedneck (BU) 6-2, 6-1
6. Vinod Gowda (OM) def. Tommy Podvinski (BU) 6-2, 6-3
Order of Finish: 5, 1, 6, 4, 2, 3
Players Mentioned
