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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
NCAA Individual Championships
Hansson Advances in NCAA Singles Championship
5/25/2016 | Men's Tennis
Singles Bracket | Doubles Bracket | Live Scoring/Video
TULSA, Okla. - Ole Miss men's tennis sophomore Gustav Hansson made his NCAA singles debut Wednesday and took care of business in straight sets against North Carolina's Brayden Schnur to advance to the second round at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.
Hansson, ranked No. 39, played a solid match in defeating Schnur, a two-time All-American ranked No. 26, 6-2, 6-2.
Hansson, who earned All-SEC first team honors, opened the match with a break of serve. Even though Schnur was able to break back for 2-2, Hansson would break twice more to take the first set. Hansson carried the momentum into the second set, breaking to go up 2-1 and then again for 5-2, which allowed him to serve out the first NCAA singles win of his career.
Next up for Hansson is 9-16 seed Tom Fawcett of Stanford Thursday at 9 a.m.
Senior Stefan Lindmark didn't go on the court until an hour and a half after his scheduled 4 p.m. start time. He dropped a 6-2, 6-2 decision to ninth-ranked and 9-16 seed Thai-Son Kwiatkowski of Virginia.
Notables…
• Hansson improved to 26-10 overall. He has won 11 of his last 13 matches.
• Lindmark ends his career with a 20-14 record this year, and 80 career wins. He earned All-SEC honors twice.
• Ole Miss was one of 16 schools with multiple players in the singles field.
• Zvonimir Babic and Filip Kraljevic get their quest started Thursday at 1:30 p.m., against North Carolina's Brayden Schnur and Jacky Murray.
• Babic and Kraljevic are ranked No. 14 in the nation with an 11-9 record. The duo beat two of the seeded teams during the regular season and had match point against top-seeded Florida when the Gators clinched the doubles point.
What's at stake?...
Besides the obvious quest of winning a national championship players can earn All-America honors by advancing to the round of 16 in singles or the quarterfinals in doubles.
Quoting head coach Toby Hansson…
On Gustav…
"Gus played a solid match. He played consistent and didn't really give his opponent any easy points. He made Schnur play every point and was in control of the match the entire time. Gus is hitting the ball well and has a good attitude on the court. Tom Fawcett is another good player with a slightly different style of play than his first opponent, but when Gus competes hard, he always has a chance. We are looking forward to seeing Gus play tomorrow, and I know he's excited to go out there and give it his best."
On Stefan…
"Stefan didn't play the way he's capable of playing, but give credit to Kwiatkowski for serving well and never really letting Stefan get in the match. Stefan has had a great career at Ole Miss, and it's nice that he was able to close out his career playing in the NCAA Tournament. We are very thankful to Stefan for choosing Ole Miss. We will definitely miss him."
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
