The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Denver - NCAA First Round
Rebels Survive and Advance
5/14/2016 | Men's Tennis
BERKELEY, Calif. - When it comes to this time of year, it's all about survive and advance, and the Ole Miss men's tennis team did just that Saturday afternoon at the Hellman Tennis Complex, defeating Denver 4-3 to move on in the NCAA Championships.
The Rebels advance to a second-round meeting against Cal, who beat Army 4-0 in the first round. The two teams will face off at 3 p.m. CT for the right to advance to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen in Tulsa, Oklahoma next week.
When it comes down to the last match, who better to have on court than sophomore Gustav Hansson, who has been there plenty of times in his short career. After winning his first set against Denver senior Henry Craig 7-5, Hansson dropped the second set 6-2. No problem. He quickly got off to a 4-1 start in the winner take all set and broke to close out the match 6-2.
With freshman Filip Kraljevic out of the lineup, Ole Miss had to switch around their doubles teams. Zvonimir Babic teamed up with Ricardo Jorge at No. 3 for a 6-3 win, but Denver earned the breaks they needed at the top two courts to secure the early 1-0 lead.
The Pioneers increased their lead to 2-0 when Wyatt Lovera beat Babic 6-3, 6-2 at No. 6 singles.
Sophomore Grey Hamilton got the Rebels on the board with a 6-2, 7-5 win at No. 5 singles and then junior Ricardo Jorge, playing in his first match since April 7, stepped up big time, defeating Yannik James in straight sets at No. 3 to tie the overall match at 2-2. Jorge won a huge first set tiebreaker 7-6(3) after facing multiple set points on his serve at 5-6. He carried that momentum into the second set and won it 6-3 to tie the overall match 2-2.
Denver pulled ahead 3-2 after Pioneer David Fox closed out freshman Fabian Fallert 6-3, 7-6(4) on court four.
That left Hansson and fellow All-SEC honoree, senior Stefan Lindmark on the court with the Rebels needing both to win. It didn't look great for Lindmark to start his match, as he lost the first set 6-0 to Denver's Diogo Rocha. However, Lindmark is accustomed to staying out there as long as it takes and he came through with a 6-2 second set. He got the break he needed in the third and served it out 6-4 to even the overall match at 3-3, as Hansson was pulling way in his third set.
Notables…
• Ole Miss is now 16-10 overall and advances to the NCAA second round for the 23rd straight year and 25th time overall.
• This marked the first ever meeting between Ole Miss and Denver.
• Ole Miss improved to 50-24 in the NCAA Championships.
• Gustav Hansson earned his 25th win of the year, improving to 25-10 overall, 17-6 in dual matches and 5-2 at No. 1 singles.
• Hansson has now clinched five wins this year for the Rebels, six overall in his career.
• Stefan Lindmark picked up his 20th win of the year, improving to 20-13 overall, 14-9 in dual matches.
• Grey Hamilton snapped a seven-match losing streak with his straight set win at No. 5 singles.
• Ricardo Jorge improved to 6-6 in dual matches and earned his first big win in the top half of the lineup.
Quoting Head Coach Toby Hansson…
"We played a great match today against a good Denver team. Doubles could have gone either way. A lot of the singles courts were going our way and some weren't. The guys responded to the pressure situations and handled themselves really well. It was a total team effort from top to bottom and we are extremely proud of the guys."
On Grey and Ricardo' matches…
"Grey served well and played a solid match. It was good to see him get the win, and his energy on the court fired up everyone else. Ricardo hasn't played a lot lately, but he stepped up and provided us a huge win. When he faced set points in the first set he maintained his focus and served his way out of it. Great job by both Grey and Ricky to get us on the board."
On Stefan and Gus at the top…
"Stefan has been there many times, he loves to be in that position. He stuck to his game and then in the third set he was able to break and serve it out at the end. At that point everyone felt very good about the situation, because Gus has been there many times already in his career, especially this year. He loves to play third sets and we felt very confident he would win."
On playing Cal next…
"We are looking forward to tomorrow's match against Cal. We are very familiar with some of their players. We just have to go out and play with the same intensity and focus we had today, and if we do that, we have a good chance to advance."
Gustav Hansson on the win…
"It was a great team win. Everybody played well and responded to the challenge in singles. We are excited to be moving on and looking forward to a great match against Cal."
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
