Following three days of action, Baylor men’s tennis sophomore Jimmy Bendeck was the lone competitor undefeated after singles play Sunday at the Napa Valley Tennis Classic.
Bendeck opened his day at the Meadowood Napa Valley Resort by besting North Carolina’s Anu Kodali, 7-5, 6-3, to finish the round robin portion of the event with a 3-0 record. By virtue of that undefeated record, the Hollywood, Fla., native was one of eight players to take part in a tie-breaker shootout draw on Sunday afternoon.
In that afternoon session, Bendeck rolled to a 10-4 tiebreaker win over Cal’s Filip Bergevi, ranked No. 77, in the quarterfinals, before besting Cal’s 61st-ranked Billy Griffith, 10-7, to reach the final. In the finale, Bendeck took down Tulsa’s Dominic Bechard, 10-8, for the 2016 USTA Wildcard Shootout title.
For the victory, Bendeck receives a wild card into the singles main draw at a to-be-determined USTA Challenger event.
The three other Bears at the event went 2-1 on the final day. Constantin Frantzen downed North Carolina’s Blaine Boyden, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, to improve to 2-1 in California. Meanwhile, 54th-ranked Max Tchoutakian got his first win at the tournament with a 7-6(2), 6-1 upset against USC’s 48th-ranked Logan Smith. Bjoern Petersen was the lone Bear to lose on the day with a 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 loss against 71st-ranked Harrison Scott of Texas.
TOP QUOTE #1
“Jimmy has worked hard since he has gotten back to school. We have been training hard in the mornings and doing a lot of running. Today was very warm by California standards and I think that helped us. What was great to see was that Jimmy just played better and better as the event wore on. He really played his best tennis today and that was fun to see.” - head coach Matt Knoll on Bendeck’s win
TOP QUOTE #2
“This tournament had a great field. We always pride ourselves on playing a good schedule. We wanted to come out here and see some of the best guys and teams in the country. The results were a little up and down, but we grew a lot. Today, particularly, Max and Constantin played much better. Bjoern learned a lot, so it was a really good experience for us.” - Knoll on the weekend
WHAT'S NEXT
Next weekend, select Baylor men’s tennis players will compete at the Southern Intercollegiate, Sept. 23-25, in Athens, Ga.
