The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebs on Tour Update: 4.10
4/10/2017 | Men's Tennis
Stay up to date at OleMissSports.com with former players who are currently playing professional tennis around the world. This week's update includes a huge weekend for Nik Scholtz and Mahesh Bhupathi in Davis Cup action.
Scholtz Delivers a Thriller for South Africa...
Playing in his fifth Davis Cup tie for South Africa, four-time All-American Nik Scholtz gave the home crowd of Pretoria something to cheer about as he rallied from 0-2 and saved match points, to top Slovenian Grega Zemlja 3-6, 6-7(1), 7-6(6), 7-6(4), 7-6(7) in just over four hours. Scholtz came from behind in each of the third, fourth and fifth set tiebreakers and saved two match points in the third set tiebreaker against the former world top 50 player.
"It was an unbelievable match," Scholtz said. "The atmosphere was great, my entire family was in the crowd, and I was happy to pull off the win. I had to dig deep, because Grega is a great player. I respect him a lot and it's never easy to lose a match like this. I have been in the same situation, so my heart goes out to Grega."
Scholtz' win gave South Africa a 2-0 lead and allowed them to clinch the tie with a doubles victory on Saturday. He also won his match on Sunday in the reverse singles, beating Slovenia's Tomislav Ternar 6-2,6-4.
South Africa beat Slovenia 5-0 and now advances to the playoff in September, where they will play Denmark to earn a possible promotion into the Euro/Africa Group 1.
Oh Captain My Captain...
After a decorated playing career, 1995 NCAA Doubles Champion and 12-time grand slam champion Mahesh Bhupathi was selected by the All India Tennis Association to serve as India's Davis Cup captain, which began with this past weekend's tie. In his first tie as the captain, Bhupathi led India to a 4-1 win over Uzbekistan and promotion to the World Group Playoffs in September.
"I'm learning as it goes. But so far so good," Bhupathi said after the straight sets doubles win that sealed the victory."
India will learn its next opponent Tuesday when the World Group Playoffs Draw takes place.
Rebels in the Rankings...
Nik Scholtz -- Singles: 445, Doubles: Career-high 299
Jonas Lutjen -- Singles: 454, Doubles: 556
Players Mentioned
