The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Kentucky
Rebels Drop 4-3 Match at Kentucky
3/6/2016 | Men's Tennis
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Ole Miss men's tennis team won the doubles point at No. 22 Kentucky, but the Wildcats won five of six first sets in singles and went on to hold off the Rebels 4-3 at the Boone Tennis Center Sunday.
With the match tied at 3-3, all eyes turned to court two, where Rebel sophomore Gustav Hansson needed to pull out a second set against 90th-ranked Ryotaro Matsumura to keep the Rebels' chances alive. His chances didn't look good at first when he went down 3-1 after dropping a tight first set 7-5. But Hansson rallied and eventually broke to serve for the set at 6-5. Hansson was two points away at 30-0, but Matsumura rallied to force a tiebreaker, which he claimed 7-4 to clinch the match for Kentucky.
Ole Miss jumped on the Wildcats at No. 1 doubles, with Filip Kraljevic and Zvonimir Babic taking a 6-1 win. Fabian Fallert and Grey Hamilton broke at 5-4 on court three, to clinch the doubles point.
Kentucky quickly turned the tide in singles, just as the Rebels had done to Tennessee on Friday after dropping the doubles point.
The Wildcats picked up two quick wins at three and four, as Kraljevic lost 6-2, 6-2 to Nils Ellefsen at three and Fallert lost 6-1, 6-0 to Enzo Wallart, to make it 2-1.
Ole Miss had another opportunity to extend a match, as Stefan Lindmark forced a second set tiebreaker as well. However, William Bushamuka escaped the breaker for a 6-2, 7-6(5) win at No. 1 singles to put the Rebels behind 3-1.
Hamilton avoided a third set in his match and won his second straight in SEC play with a 6-0, 7-6(5) win against Trey Yates at No. 5 singles to get the Rebels within one, 3-2.
Babic tied the match when his opponent, Charles Minc, retired down 0-2 in the third set. Babic had rallied to win the second set 6-3 after dropping the first 6-3.
Notables…
• Ole Miss falls to 6-3 overall and 1-1 in the SEC.
• Grey Hamilton won his third straight and improved to 2-0 in the SEC.
• Hamilton is now 3-1 in the SEC dating back to last season.
• Zvonimir Babic is now 3-0 at No. 6 singles this season, including 2-0 in the SEC.
• This marked the third 4-3 match of the year for the Rebels.
• It marked the first time the Rebels have lost this year when winning the doubles point.
• The Rebels return home to host LSU next Friday at 5 p.m., followed by Texas A&M Sunday at 1 p.m.
Quoting Head Coach Toby Hansson…
"It was an exciting college tennis match that came down to a few points here and there to decide it. We got off to a good start with the doubles; Grey and Fabi got the break to win it 6-4 and clinch the point. It's tough to win on the road in this league when you don't win at least one match in the top three singles."
On the last match with Gustav Hansson…
"We were really in control in the first set with Gus up 5-2, 40-30 and just couldn't close the door. He had a lot of close games in that match. A credit to him though, he was down 3-1 in the second and comes back to serve for it. Unfortunately, it didn't go our way, but that's how it is in close matches. We just have to figure out a way to win more of them as a team."
On bouncing back…
"We are looking forward to coming back to Oxford and playing two good teams in LSU and Texas A&M. It will be another challenging weekend, but we are excited to play in front of our home crowd."
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.
Players Mentioned
