Gustav The Great Saves Ole Miss, TCU Wins Battle Over Stanford, Cal Fights Off Texas

Saturday was a day for some great tennis in the state of Texas with Ole Miss winning a thriller over Baylor in Waco while TCU and Cal won battles over Stanford and Texas in Austin.

Ole Miss came into the match having only played 3 times all season while Baylor was playing its 5th match in the last 8 days. Baylor got off to a hot start in doubles and at one point led 5-1 at #1, 3-0 at #2, and 4-2 at #3 but unbelievably they’d only get 1 more game between the 3 courts combined. Julian Lenz and Will Little got that 1 game and finished off the match at #1 winning 6-2 but Ole Miss started chipping away at the deficit everywhere else. The Rebel’s #3 team of Fabian Fallert and Grey Hamilton won 4 straight game to close out Felipe Rios and Jimmy Bendeck 6-4. The biggest momentum shift in that one came when Ole Miss was serving at 4-4, 15-40 and they managed to come back and get the hold. Moments later Stefan Lindmark and Ricardo Jorge completed their comeback by winning the final 6 games at #2 to win 6-3.

Losing the doubles point in the manner they lost it was a back breaker for Baylor because with its lack of depth down low it meant that they’d have to find a way to sweep the top 4 courts and they almost did it.

Ole Miss head coach Toby Hansson made a few changes to his singles lineup that ended up paying dividends later in the match. He removed Grey Hamilton, who was 0-3 at #4, and slid Fabian Fallert up from #5 to #4 and brought Ricardo Jorge off the bench to play at #5. He also swapped Gustav Hansson (no relation) and Filip Kraljevic at #2 and #3 after each had played in the other spot in the first three matches.

Each team took three opening sets in singles with Lenz, Tchoutakian, and Little getting them for Baylor while Hansson, Jorge, and Gowda rang them up for Ole Miss. Ricardo Jorge would be off the court in just 65 minutes as he crushed Jimmy Bendeck 6-2, 6-1 at #5 singles but about 20 minutes later Baylor’s Julian Lenz would answer with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Stefan Lindmark at #1.

Ole Miss still had all the momentum because Vinod Gowda was pulling away at #6 and Gustav Hansson was up a set and a break at #3 so for Baylor to get back in it they’d need Felipe Rios to figure something out at #3. While Vinod Gowda closed out Tommy Podvinski 6-2, 6-3 at #6, Rios would come back to break Hansson twice in the second set and take the set 6-4.

So it was now 3-1 Ole Miss with both #2 and #3 singles into a third set plus Baylor’s Will Little was up a set and heading to a second set tiebreak at #4.

Baylor’s Max Tchoutakian fell behind 2-0* in the third at #2 but he got it back on serve and then broke Filip Kraljevic to go up 5-3. While Tchoutakian served for the match at #2 it looked like his teammate at #4 was about to go to a third set because Will Little trailed Fabian Fallert 6-3 in the second set tiebreak.

All of a sudden things started to go Baylor’s way. Will Little won the next two points to pull within 6-5 and just when it looked like Fallert was going to take the set, Little pulled a running backhand lob out of his hat and tied it up at 6-6. Less than a minute later both Fallert and Kraljevic would put forehands into the net and in a blink of an eye the match was tied at 3-3. The fans were going nuts as you can see below and Baylor had newfound life.

As easily as Baylor had blown the doubles point it now looked like Ole Miss was about to return the favor in singles but this one wasn’t quite over yet. Felipe Rios was up 2-1 in the third on the remaining court and had worked Gustav Hansson to the deciding point but Hansson managed to hold to even it at 2-2.  Hansson would then go up 0-40 on Rios’s serve and would eventually get the break from 30-40 when Rios hit a backhand slice that was a foot or two short from clearing the net.

Hansson was just a few holds away from closing it out and it looked good when he went up 40-15 on his next service game. After a Hansson forehand error made it 40-30, Rios hit a forehand that Hansson called long but after Rios appealed the call the chair overturned it to make it 40-40. However it was also Hansson’s third overrule of the match which meant there was a corresponding point penalty which gave Rios the break to even it at 3-3. I was watching on the live stream and I thought the ball may have clipped the line but again that’s me watching on the stream while Hansson was standing right over the ball.

Gustav Hansson (Photo Via OleMissSports.com

The big point on Rios’s next service game came at 30-all – about 3 or 4 shots in Rios apparently broke a string so he hit a squash forehand which squashed into the bottom part of the net. Rios changed out rackets after the point but the new stick wouldn’t help him as he dumped a forehand into the net to donate the break back to Hansson.

As the third set rocked on Rios was going out of his way to try and hit forehands while Hansson seemed to be moving around rather effortlessly and was hitting the ball just as well off both wings.

Hansson rang up a quick hold from 40-15 to extend his lead to 5-3 but Rios held himself from 40-15 to make it 5-4. Hansson went up 40-15 but Rios got it to the deciding point after Hansson put an off-balance forehand into the net. The deciding point was pretty quick as Rios sent a forehand long and Ole Miss came away with the 4-3 win.

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In the opening match of the day in Austin, TCU and Stanford went toe-to-toe for over 3 hours with every singles matches tightly contested after a close doubles point.

Stanford came into the match undefeated in doubles but TCU put an end to that streak by picking up a 6-4 win at #3 and a 7-5 win at #2. It just so happened that TCU switched up its doubles pairings at #2 and #3 by splitting up Rybakov and Stalder and bringing Hudson Blake in at #2 and moving Guillermo Nunez down to #3 and the moves ended up paying off. Rybakov and Nunez went up a break to start the match but Yale Goldberg and David Wilczynski broke back to even the match at 2-2. Rybakov and Nunez broke again late and then held to take it 6-4 which clinched the doubles point.

Stanford fought back in singles and took four opening sets but they’d be unable to close out any of them in straight sets. TCU’s Guillermo Nunez made it 2-0 after coming back from a set down to beat Nolan Paige at #3 and then Eduardo Nava would extend the lead to 3-0 by winning the only straight set match of the day 7-6, 7-6 over Michael Genender at #5. Stanford’s Tom Fawcett came back from a set down to upend #4 Cameron Norrie 6-4 in the third at #1 and Maciek Romanowicz scored a win at #6 over Trey Daniel 6-3 in the third. So it was now 3-2 TCU and Stanford’s Sameer Kumar had gone up 4-1 in the third at #4 but unfortunately for the Cardinal David Wilczynski was in trouble at #2. Wilczynski took the first set over TCU freshman phenom Alex Rybakov but Rykavov took the second 6-4. The third set would be all Rybakov as he cruised to the finish line with a 6-0 set and TCU had survived to fight another day.

The match between Kumar and Lopez was abandoned but Lopez had got it back on serve before the clinch.  

Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (3,5,1,6,2)