Sandkaulen’s Comeback Bid Comes Up Just Short in ITA National Opener

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – Ole Miss men's tennis senior Tim Sandkaulen nearly pulled off a huge comeback attempt in the opening round of the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships against No. 88 Jake Sands of USC on Wednesday. Sands won the match 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-2 over Sandkaulen, the No. 25 ITA ranked player, at The Tennis Club at Newport.

Sands scored the opening game in set one before Sandkaulen answered to tie the match at 1-1. His USC opponent then rallied off the next five games to capture the opening set, 6-1.

The momentum carried over into the second set as sands took a 5-1 lead. Sandkaulen was able to save four match points on his way back to 5-5. He was eventually able to force a third set after taking the second set 7-5 in the tiebreaker.

The German product avoided elimination trailing 40-30 at 5-2 and 30-15 at 5-4, and eventually took a 6-5 advantage in the second. Sands battled to even things up and sent the match into a tiebreaker. After going back-and-forth for five ties, Sandkaulen forced a decisive third set with a 7-6(5) victory.

Sandkaulen was able to start the third set up 1-0 but couldn't quite hold on to the momentum falling 6-2 in the third set.

The Rebel senior will continue play on Thursday with a 10 a.m. CT consolation match against No. 13 Juan Carlos Aguilar of Texas A&M.

RESULTS
No. 88 J. Sands (USC) def. No. 25 T. Sandkaulen, 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-2

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Tim Sandkaulen

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