Men's Tennis Perfect On Day One of NCAA Singles Championship
Lenz, Lupieri and Tchoutakian advance to NCAA second round singles Thursday.
WACO, Texas – Three Baylor men's tennis players each won their opening round match in the NCAA Singles Championship Wednesday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
In Baylor's opening match of the event, the second-ranked Julian Lenz took down 41st-ranked Jason Tahir of Duke, 2-6, 7-6(3), 6-2. The BU junior won his first match of the NCAA Singles Championship, after losing in the first round of the event for the past two seasons.
The BU junior is now 26-8 on the year and 17-7 against ranked foes. After being down a break at 5-4 in the second set, Lenz rebounded to break Tahir and then get a hold to take a 6-5 lead. The set then headed into a tiebreaker, which Lenz won easily to take the set.
In Baylor's second match, the 35th-ranked Tony Lupieri downed No. 112 Henry Craig of Denver, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. Lupieri improved to 17-13 on the year, snapping a six-match losing streak for the senior.
To end the day, the 58th-ranked Max Tchoutakian upset No. 20 Mitchell Frank of Virginia, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. The first-year Bear upped his record to 18-11 and 7-7 against ranked foes.
TOP QUOTE #1
“I think in any tournament like this in the first round – you are a little bit nervous. I think any of the players that played here in the team tournament will tell you that there is something of a hangover from playing the team event. Playing by yourself is a challenge. Once our guys got into the matches, they competed extremely hard. They made some good adjustments and really responded to the things we were telling them. It is great for the program to have all three of them get through to the second round.” - Head coach Matt Knoll on the victories
TOP QUOTE #2
“I started the match being very nervous. It's the third time I have played, but the first time I have won a round in the tournament, so I was thinking about it. I didn't really play the way I was supposed to play. I didn't serve well, had a lot of easy forehand misses, and then the backhand wasn't there. I was down a break five to four, and then we made a little adjustment. He didn't like it when I pressured him and he didn't have enough time to take a big swing, then he started to give me some unforced errors and I picked it up from there. I played a pretty good tie breaker and the third set was back to normal.” – Julian Lenz on his first round match
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor's three singles players will take part in the NCAA second round Thursday. Tony Lupieri will now play No. 1 ranked Axel Alvarez of Oklahoma at 11 a.m. Max Tchoutakian faces Tennessee's 14th-ranked Mikelis Libietis at 11:30 a.m. Julian Lenz takes on 45th-ranked Jonny Wang of USC at 9 a.m.
Meanwhile, Lenz and partner Diego Galeano will begin their run in the NCAA Doubles Championship at 2:30 p.m. against No. 10 Harrison Adams and Shane Vinsant of Texas A&M.
Live scoring and a video feed of the match will be available for each match through links on BaylorBears.com. Check BaylorBears.com
Follow the official Twitter account of the team: @BaylorWTennis for an inside look at the team with scores, notes and stories.
