M tennis: Youth is served
January 31, 2007
If there is such a thing as a learning curve for newcomers, the Saluki men’s tennis team straightened it out at the MVC Individual Championships.
The Salukis won three consolation-round finals and placed a doubles team in the No. 2 championship finals.
Coach Dann Nelson said he liked what he saw out of his under-manned tournament team.
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“Even though it was an individual tournament, we had four guys do extremely well,” Nelson said.
The Salukis traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, with only four players because of off-court issues. Nelson pointed to junior college transfer Hugo Vidal as a player to watch in 2007.
“I think the player who showed the most as for what he can do for our team, and they all did really well, is Hugo Vidal,” Nelson said.
The doubles tandem of Vidal and Karl Nilsson, a freshman, advanced to the Sunday finals of the flight two doubles draw before falling to Illinois State.
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Nilsson said he and Vidal played a tough match but could not hold their lead.
Doubles: No. 2 – Jacinto/Tobar (ILS) def. Vidal/Nilsson – 8-6.
Saturday results
Singles: No. 1 – Vujaklija (WSU) def. Waked – 6-4, 6-2; No. 1 – Waked v. Tsymbalov (INS) – injury forfeit; No. 2 – Stankovic def. Dudar (CU) 6-7 (3), 6-2, 10-3; No. 2 – Lofgren (BU) def. Stankovic – 6-3, 6-3; No. 3 – Vidal def. Robertson (BU) – 6-2, 6-0; No. 3. – Vidal def. Migogo (INS) 6-1, 6-1; No. 4 – Nilsson def. Miller (CU) – 3-6, 6-3, 10-8.
Doubles: No. 2 – Vidal/Nilsson def. Metully/Robertson (BU) – 8-4.
Friday results
Singles: No. 1 – Waked def. Guerra (CU) – 6-3, 3-6. 6-3; No. 2 -Behl (INS) def. Stankkovic – 6-2, 6-3; No. 3 -Jacinto (ILS) def. Vidal – 6-4, 1-3, 7-6 (1); No. 4 – Dos Santos (WSU) def. Nilsson – 6-2, 6-0.
Doubles: No. 1 – Zirkin/Pavic (DU) def. Waked/Stankovic – 8-2; No. 2 – Vidal/Nilsson def. Guerra/Elson (CU) – 9-7.
“We played really good in the beginning, we were up 6-2 and were serving, but the other guys started playing really good and we lost 8-6,” Nilsson said.
Vidal also brought home flight three’s consolation-round title Saturday with two singles wins. He dropped only four games over four sets.
Nilsson won Saturday’s flight four consolation championship match in three sets.
Freshman Lucas Waked, playing out of the No. 1 singles bracket, also took home a consolation-round title by injury forfeit. Waked won his Friday first-round match before falling in two sets to the flight’s No. 1 seed and eventual champion, Wichita State’s Goran Vujaklia, in three sets.
Freshman Milos Stankovic won his first consolation-round match in two sets before falling in two sets in the bracket’s finals.
Stankovic, who brought experience as an international player into the tournament, said the experience should give his team an idea of what to expect during the season.
“I think this is a pretty good conference,” Stankovic said. “I think the other players are really good but we are also very good and we can do it, I think.”
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