The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
LSU
Men's Tennis Drops Heartbreaker to LSU
4/2/2017 | Men's Tennis
BATON ROUGE, La. - The Ole Miss men's tennis team built a 3-0 lead behind the doubles point and singles wins on courts one and four, but LSU saved match points on court six and rallied for a 4-3 win Sunday at the LSU Tennis Complex.
The match came down to some third sets on several courts. LSU pulled to within 3-2 by winning three-setters on courts five and two, before tying it up on court three by taking a third set tiebreaker. The match hinged on court six, where Grey Hamilton had three match points in the second tiebreaker go away. He led 3-1 in the third set and had game points for 4-1, but LSU rallied and ended up winning the match 4-6, 7-6(8), 6-4 to clinch.
The Rebels started the day winning a close doubles point. Tim Sandkaulen and Filip Kraljevic won 6-3 on court three and then Zvonimir Babic and Ricardo Jorge took court two 7-5 to give Ole Miss the early 1-0 lead.
Things seemed to be going the Rebels' way when they took five first sets including a dominating 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 1 singles from 38th-ranked Gustav Hansson against 56th-ranked Justin Butsch. Fabian Fallert added a 6-3, 6-2 win on court four against Agie Moreno to push the lead to 3-0.
In the one match where LSU won the first set, Kraljevic battled back to get the second, but then LSU's Julian Saborio won a close third to put the Tigers on the board.
Sandkaulen won a first set tiebreaker, but LSU's Gabor Csonka came back to take the second 6-3 and then dominated the third 6-0 to make it 3-2 with both remaining matches in the third set.
Jorge won his first 6-4 against Nikola Samardzic at No. 3 singles, but Tiger won the second 6-4. The third would go to a tiebreaker, which Samardzic edged 7-5 to tie the overall score.
Hamilton led 3-1 in the third, when Samuelsson won three straight games to go up 4-3. Hamilton tied it at 4-4, before Samulesson won the final two games to clinch.
At the Net…
• The Rebels are now 8-8 on the year, 3-6 in the SEC
• Tim Sandkaulen and Filip Kraljevic improved to 6-1 overall, 4-0 in the SEC
• Fabian Fallert improved to 17-6 overall, 11-3 in dual matches and 7-1 in the SEC
• Ricardo Jorge and Zvonimir Babic improved to 11-2 overall, 6-1 in the SEC
Complete Results
Doubles
1. #13 Fallert/Hamilton (OM) vs. Daigle/Butsch (LSU) 5-6, sus.
2. Jorge/Babic (OM) def. Csonka/Saborio (LSU) 7-5
3. Sandkaulen/Kraljevic (OM) def. Moreno/Samuelsson (LSU) 6-3
Order of Finish: 3, 2
Singles
1. #38 Gustav Hansson (OM def. #56 Justin Butsch (LSU) 6-1, 6-1
2. Gabor Csonka (LSU) def. Tim Sandkaulen (OM) 6-7, 6-3, 6-0
3. Nikola Samardzic (LSU) def. Ricardo Jorge (OM) 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(5)
4. Fabian Fallert (OM) def. Agie Moreno (LSU) 6-3, 6-2
5. Julian Saborio (LSU) def. Filip Kraljevic (OM) 6-3, 2-6, 6-4
6. Eric Samuelsson (LSU) def. Grey Hamilton (OM) 4-6, 7-6(8), 6-4
Order of Finish: 1, 4, 5, 2, 3, 6
Thoughts from head coach Toby Hansson…
"That was a tough loss today. We had all the momentum after the doubles point and winning the first set on five courts. We were in complete control of the match and just a point away from victory, but we didn't do a good job of closing the match out. Hopefully everyone has learned their lesson and uses this as motivation to get better."
Up next…
The Rebels return home four a four-match homestand, beginning with Arkansas Friday at 1 p.m. Fans will enjoy free crawfish.
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
