University of South Florida
Illinois State
Lineup Shuffle Leads To Second Straight Victory For Men's Tennis
February 23, 2007 | Men's Tennis
TAMPA, Fla. (February 23, 2007) ? Despite some adjustments to the doubles and singles lineups because of illness, the University of South Florida men's tennis team earned its second consecutive win, topping the Illinois State Redbirds 6-1, Fri. afternoon at the USF Varsity Tennis Courts.
Head coach Don Barr, who earned his 200th career victory with last Sunday's 5-2 defeat of FAU, was forced to mix the orders because of illnesses affecting both Henning Hipp and Thomas Estrada.
Estrada's normal doubles partner, Mahmoud Hamed, was instead joined by Ales Svigelj at the No. 1 spot in USF's 10th different doubles pairing of the dual season. The combination worked as Svigelj and Hamed defeated ISU's team of Yohann Nograbat and Oscar Beich, 8-2.
Hipp toughed out a doubles match at No. 2 with partner Daniel Daudt as the pair won 8-1 over Nuno Jacinto and Daniel Tobar.
Marc Jaeger and Mark Gattiker pulled together in a match that lasted more than an hour to win the tie-break point in the third doubles flight, 8-7 (8-6), to give the Bulls their second straight doubles sweep.
Singles play looked very different with Svigelj making the most of his first ever appearance at the No. 1 flight, setting down the Redbirds' Nograbat, 6-2, 6-0.
Diego Toledo ran his overall singles record to 7-1with his highest career win at No. 4, 6-1, 6-2 over Xavier Riart-Ferrer and Keith Embree earned his first head-to-head win at No. 6 with a three set win over Beich.
“Having to pull two top players out and still win ? I'm very proud of the way the guys fought hard today,” said Barr. “Every other player basically moved up two spots and fought tough. If we can continue that kind of fighting, the rest of the season will go well."
Proof of such tough battles was evident in the No. 3 singles spot with Estrada dueling against ISU's Luka Marinkovic. After taking the first set 6-4 and narrowly dropping the second 7-6, Estrada fought off the powerful serves of the Redbirds junior to win the tiebreak set, 1-0 (10-7) in the longest match of the day.
The men's tennis team will end their five match home stand for a short trip to Gainesville on Sun., Feb. 25 to battle the No. 12 Gators. UF sits at 3-2 on the year, having dropped their most recent match 4-3 to Florida State on Feb. 17. First serve on Sunday is scheduled for 1 p.m.
USF 6, Illinois State 1
Doubles
1) Hamed/Svigelj (USF) def. Nograbat/Beich (ISU) 8-2
2) Hipp/Daudt (USF) def. Jacinto/Tobar (ISU) 8-1
3) Jaeger/Gattiker (USF) def. Marinkovic/Riart-Ferrer (ISU) 8-7 (6)
Singles
1) Ales Svigelj (USF) def. Yohann Nograbat (ISU) 6-2, 6-0
2) Mahmoud Hamed (USF) def. Nuno Jacinto (ISU) 6-1, 6-3
3) Thomas Estrada (USF) def. Luka Marinkovic (ISU) 6-4, 6-7, 1-0 (10-7)
4) Diego Toledo (USF) def. Xavier Riart-Ferrer (ISU) 6-1, 6-2
5) Daniel Tobar (ISU) def. Daniel Daudt (USF) 2-6, 6-2, 6-2
6) Keith Embree (USF) def. Oscar Beich (ISU) 2-6, 6-1, 6-1
Order of Finish: 1,2,4,6,5,3
USF: 3-5 ISU: 5-3
