Bulldogs have 4-0 day at Championships
ORLANDO, Fla. – A perfect run in the 2019 NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships continued on Tuesday for four members of the Mississippi State men's tennis team.
The Bulldogs went 2-0 in singles with straight-set wins by Nuno Borges and Giovanni Oradini followed by a three-set comeback thriller by 32nd-ranked Niclas Braun and Oradini. Borges and Strahinja Rakic capped off the day with a straight-set doubles triumph in the nightcap.
Oradini began the day for the Bulldogs by posting a convincing 6-3, 6-1 victory against No. 53 Joseph Guillin of UC Santa Barbara, which advanced him to the Round of 16 for the second year in a row.
In the first set, both players held serve well early before Oradini broke Guillin at love to go up 3-1. Guillin responded by breaking back, but the Bulldog junior returned the favor by breaking the Gaucho at 30-40 to go up 4-2. That lead held, as Oradini served it out to claim the first set 6-3.
Oradini then broke Guillin at love to open up the second set and maintained control throughout the set, only surrendering one game on a deciding point. To close out the match, Oradini broke Guillin at 30-40 when Guillin's forehand shot fell deep.
"It was a very similar match to the one I played yesterday,"
(Photo by Bill Kallenberg, for Starkville Daily News)
Oradini said. "Yesterday and today, I focused on every point and didn't worry about what was going to happen next. I stayed focused on my goals and my game plan, and that worked again today. I felt very calm on the court and it helped me to do the right things and make good decisions. I had some moments of pressure and I thought I handled them pretty well."
By advancing to the Round of 16, Oradini earns ITA Singles All-american honors for the second year in a row. Today, he will face 22nd-ranked Jack Lin of Columbia, who ousted Texas A&M'S 31stranked Juan Carlos Aguilar in a 7-6, 6-2 decision Tuesday morning. Lin earned the Ivy League's automatic bid and went 11-7 in dual match play for the Lions, 8-4 at the No. 2 spot. In his first-round match, Lin took down No. 35 Alex Lebedev of Notre Dame 6-2, 7-5. Match time between Oradini and Lin is slated for not before 4 p.m., and will be shown live on the Tennis Channel.
In Borges' second-round bout, the top-seeded Allamerican senior continued his program-best singles winning streak – now at 28 straight matches – defeating Florida's 59th-ranked Andy Andrade 6-3, 6-4.
"He really pushed me a lot throughout the match, so I just tried to stay tough and not give him much," Borges said. "That's what paid off for me. He made some mistakes and I just took advantage of them."
Borges will face a familiar foe in today's Round of 16, taking on Tennessee's 23rd-ranked Timo Stodder at 3 p.m. live on the Tennis Channel. Borges is 4-0 in his career against the Volunteer standout, including a pair of victories this season, most recently clinching State's second-straight SEC Tournament title with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory in Gainesville, Florida. The players also met in the 2018 NCAA Singles quarterfinals where Borges held off Stodder 7-6(4), 6-4.
Braun and Oradini, ranked No. 32, faced some adversity in their NCAA Doubles Championship debut, going down a set early to Texas Tech's ninthranked pair of Bjorn Thomson and Parker Wynn by a 6-2 margin. The Bulldog pair went down a break early in the second frame as well, but responded by breaking back and staying in the match with the Red Raiders.
Thomson and Wynn broke the MSU tandem to take a 5-4 lead and served for the match, but Braun and Oradini broke back to knot it up at 5-all. Texas Tech once again broke the Bulldog duo, but Braun and Oradini returned the favor once again, breaking the Red Raiders on a match point to force a set tiebreaker to try and extend the match.
In the tiebreaker, Braun and Oradini spurted to a 5-1 lead, an advantage that held with State taking a 7-6(3) decision to force a 10-point match supertiebreaker to decide the outcome.
There, Braun and Oradini kept up the momentum, leading 4-2 early. The Bulldogs kept the Red Raiders at bay, with Wynn double-faulting at the end to give Braun and Oradini a hard-fought 2-6, 7-6(3), 1-0(6) upset win to advance to the NCAA Round of 16.
"Our energy made a difference in the match," Braun said. "We pumped ourselves up after we were broken in the second set and we never stopped believing in ourselves. We felt that we could still turn it around and we just stuck with what we've been doing all season."
Next, Braun and Oradini will face Northwestern's 31stranked Simen Bratholm and Nick Brookes, who advanced by upsetting the fifth-ranked Texas tandem of Harrison Scott and Christian Sigsgaard, a 5-8 alphabetical seed in the draw, on Tuesday. Match time is slated for not before 6 p.m.
In the nightcap, the thirdranked Bulldog pair of Borges and Strahinja Rakic made it a 4-0 day for the Bulldogs, trouncing TCU'S 15th-ranked Alastair Gray and Alex Rybakov 6-4, 6-2 in their firstround match.
After taking a tight first set, Borges and Rakic jumped on the Horned Frogs early in the second, breaking the TCU pair for a lead that grew as the match progressed. After holding to go up 3-1, the Bulldogs broke TCU once more to lead 4-1, then held on a deciding point to take a commanding 5-1 advantage. The Horned Frogs held to cut the deficit to 5-2, but Borges and Rakic held on another deciding point to take the set and close out the match.
"We played them three times this year, so we knew what to expect," Rakic said. "We just tried to stay sharp in our serves. We served really well, we were feeling it and returning well. It was just a good, clean match from us tonight."
In the Round of 16, Borges and Rakic will take on No. 28 Jacob Brumm and Yuta Kikuchi of Cal, who were late-night winners on Tuesday. Match time is slated for not before 6 p.m.