FORT SMITH, ARK – Both the men's and women's Patriots tennis programs looked strong in their second matches of LSC play as they each came away with big wins on Saturday morning in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
After coming away with a close 4-3 victory against #25 Cameron on Friday, the Patriots men looked to flex their muscles on Saturday to improve their record to 2-0.
In the doubles portion of the match,
Gonzalo Fernandez Gil and
Moritz Mayer got things started on the right food with a 6-3 victory in their match. UAFS responded in the #2 doubles match, collecting a 6-1 victory over
Joaquin Bianchi and
Jonas Dixon. That leveled the doubles matches at 1-1, and UT Tyler needed to win the third match to collect the point.
Leon Sell and
Jorge Sala Frigeri answered the call, and won their match 6-4 to give the Patriots a 1-0 advantage heading into singles.
In singles, the Patriots wasted no time in getting down to business, as Bianchi ran away with the #1 singles match by scores of 6-3, 6-3 to put another point on the board. In the #2 singles slot, Fernandez Gil showed the same dominance, also winning his match in straight sets by scores of 6-3, 6-3.
That gave UT Tyler a commanding 3-0 lead, and brought the match down to the final straw for UAFS. Mayer was up in the #3 singles position after already collecting a victory with Fernandez Gil in doubles. After a big 6-3 victory in the first set, Anis Ramchane of UAFS forced a tiebreaker in the second set. Mayer was able to win that tiebreaker and claim the set 7-6 to give UT Tyler the fourth and final point to win the dual match.
Also collecting victories on the day were
Yudai Watanabe and Dixon. Watanabe continues to flex his prowess in singles, claiming a 6-4, 6-4 win in his match. Dixon displayed dominance in his match, coming away with a 6-3, 6-2 win of his own.
On the women's side, the Patriots looked to respond to their tough loss to #6 Cameron on Friday with a big win on Saturday against UAFS.
That is exactly what the ladies did, as they put away the Lions in all three doubles matches to easily claim the doubles point in the match.
Delara Zamani and
Leony Deutschmann didn't drop a single game as they won 6-0.
Andrea Farris and
Chloe Chawner paired in the #2 singles match, and came away with a. big 6-2 win. In doubles match #3,
Tanvikhaa Saravanan and
Chloe Dix paired up and delivered the third consecutive win by a score of 6-2.
Over in singles, UT Tyler looked to continue the strong momentum set from their doubles matches, and they wasted no time in claiming the overall match. Zamani took on the #1 singles slot after a dominating victroy in doubles, and went right back to work as she claimed a big straight sets win by a score of 6-3, 6-1 to put another point up for UT Tyler.
Deutschmann paired with Zamani in doubles, and slid into the #2 singles slot behind Zamani. In her match, she also came away with a big straight set win by scores of 6-4, 6-2 to put the third point of the day on the board.
With the Lions on the ropes,
Kanika Sivaraman stepped into the spotlight for the Patriots as she looked to put away any hopes of a comeback for UAFS. That is exactly what Sivaraman did, delivering a crushing 6-2, 6-1 defeat in the #3 singles match and claiming victory for the Patriots women.
Saravanan was the other Patriots player to claim a win in the contest as she came back from a one set deficit in her match to win two sets to one. After a 6-3 defeat in set one, she responded with 6-2, 6-4 scores in the final two sets to win her match.
Next up for UT Tyler tennis will be a return back home to Summers Tennis Center for their first home LSC matches of the season. On Friday, the Patriots will host Western New Mexico at 10 a.m. and on Saturday the Patriots will host UT Permian Basin also at 10 a.m.
