Friday Recap: Gophers Shock Illini & SEC Tournament Follows Form

Just when you thought it was safe to go outside at night the Minnesota Golden Gophers jumped out from behind the tree and yelled boo and shocked #3 Illinois 4-3.

Minnesota took the doubles point for the 20th time in 24 matches by getting wins at #1 (Jack Hamburg/Mathieu Froment) and #2 (Felix Corwin/Leandro Toledo) with the win at #2 coming in the tiebreak.  Illinois had won the doubles point in the previous 6 matches but is now just 15-10 on the year in doubles.

Despite falling behind, many people including myself thought Illinois would turn it on in singles and still get it done but Minnesota said not tonight.

The biggest singles upset came in the first match to finish as Minnesota’s Jack Hamburg snapped #57 Aleks Vukic’s 14-match winning streak with a 6-4, 6-4 win at #5 singles.  Vukic hadn’t dropped a set since March 15th.  For those that like tracking the UTRs of each player you’ll notice that there was a difference of more than 1.00 which means this is definitely an upset.

After falling behind 2-0, Illinois would get back in the match with wins from Farris Gosea, Tim Kopinski, and Aron Hiltzik at 1, 3, and 4 to put the Illini up 3-2.

It looked like Jared Hiltzik was going to close out Matic Spec in straight sets at #2 when he had 3 match points in the 2nd set but Spec would come back to take the set in a tiebreak.  Spec jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the 3rd but Hiltzik would take the next 2 to tie it back up.  Spec would then take the next 4 games and close it out 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 to even the match at 3-3.  Matic Spec has now won 11 in a row and 19-2 on the year in dual-match play.

In the deciding match at #6 singles, Minnesota’s Mathieu Froment would come back from a set down to take the 2nd set and then go up 4-2 in the 3rd against Blake Bazarnik.  Bazarnik would then hold, break, and hold again to go up 5-4.  Spec held for 5-5, Bazarnik held easily for 6-5, then Bazarnik would go up 15-40 on the Froment serve to give himself 2 match points.  Froment battled back and took the next 4 points to hold and force a tiebreak to decide the match.  Bazarnik served first in the TB and went up 1-0, then Froment took the next 2 points to go up 2-1, then Bazarnik got the next one to tie it at 2-2.  I thought this might be heading for an epic 15-13 tiebreak or something like that but Froment would then take the next 5 points and close it out 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(2).

We just beat the number 3 team in the country! We will be competing for the Big Ten Championship on Sunday! #gogophs pic.twitter.com/UOakA6NDIf
Jeremy Lynn (@lynnsanity17) April 18, 2015

If Minnesota can beat #27 Northwestern on Sunday we’d have a 3-way tie for 1st in the Big 10. As of this moment I’m not sure how the seeds for the Big 10 Tournament would be determined if there was a 3-way tie for 1st.  Since they’d all have the same H2H record I’m guessing that it’d revert to the highest ITA ranking to determine seeds.  Just a guess but if someone at a Big 10 school has knowledge of the tiebreaker procedure let me know and I’ll post it.

Minnesota recap
Illinois recap

“Minnesota has very good players and are well coached,” head coach Brad Dancer said. “They put on a great event and gave it the feel of a Big Ten Championship match. We had them down in multiple spots ready to close them out. Triple match point and double match point on separate courts to finish the match. Anytime a team fights back from that you have to give them all the credit. Minnesota earned the win. We know we have work to do. It’s up to the coaches to prepare the team and be ready for Sunday.”

FYI, the number beside the player’s school is the player’s Universal Tennis Rating as of April 17th.  For more details about UTR check out their website.