Get your dinner done early because there’s some big time tennis tonight in Waco as #2 Baylor hosts #1 Oklahoma.  Baylor will have a blog running in addition to providing live scoring and streaming video so if you’re around a computer check it out.  All the scoring, video, blog, twitter links are done below at the bottom of this post.

#1 Oklahoma (20-1) at #2 Baylor (17-3) – 7pm est – Oklahoma has already beat Baylor twice this year, once indoors in Chicago and once outdoors in California (box scores below), so you’d think it’d be tough to beat them again.  Since the 2nd meeting Oklahoma has played and beat #10 TCU, #9 Texas, and #29 Tulsa while Baylor hasn’t played anyone substantial.  It’ll be interesting to see if that lack of competition over these last 3 weeks will hurt Baylor.  The Bears will have the home court advantage with a loud, rowdy crowd cheering on every point so we’ll get to see how Oklahoma handles it though they managed just fine in Columbus against Ohio State.  The teams have split the doubles point in the previous 2 meetings but I like Baylor to take the point this time around because of the influence of the crowd.

Prematch comments via Baylor:

“It’s going to be a blast,” head coach Matt Knoll said. “I’ve been here a long time and this is only going to be the second time we’ve ever had this situation. On top of that we’ll have a No.1 vs. No. 2 match in singles as well, so it’s going to be a special day. It’s a big day for the program and something that we’re very excited about. It’s going to bring out the best in us.”

Baylor’s preview video below

Doubles Records:
Baylor: 18-1 overall & 40-7 on all courts
Oklahoma: 12-9 overall & 33-22 on all courts

Projected Doubles Lineup with records in ( ):
1. #8 Alvarez/Webb (OU 15-4) vs. #51 Zsiga/Lupieri (BU 5-4)
2. #52 Ghilea/Harris (OU 6-5) vs. #54 Lenz/Galeano (BU 14-1)
3. Papa/Bragusi (OU 2-3) vs. Schneider/Rios (BU 12-2)

Projected Singles Lineup:
1. #2 Axel Alvarez (OU 14.76) vs. #1 Julian Lenz (BU 14.77)
2. #7 Andrew Harris (OU 14.85) vs. #31 Tony Lupieri (BU 14.12)
3. #30 Dane Webb (OU 14.24) vs. #61 Max Tchoutakian (BU 14.33)
4. #70 Alex Ghilea (OU 14.19) vs. Diego Galeano (BU 13.63)
5. Spencer Papa (OU 13.86) vs. #117 Mate Zsiga (BU 13.86)
6. Florin Bragusi (OU 13.58) vs. Felipe Rios (BU 13.83)
Also could play: Jose Salazar (OU 13.73), Vince Schneider (BU 13.51)

FYI, the number beside the player’s school is the player’s Universal Tennis Rating as of April 9th.  For more details about UTR check out their website. 

Dual-Match Singles Records:
1. Alvarez 17-0 vs. Lenz 11-2
2. Harris 12-4 vs. Lupieri 9-5
3. Webb 13-3 vs. Tchoutakian 12-5
4. Ghilea 13-2 vs. Galeano 7-3
5. Papa 9-5 vs. Zsiga 8-2
6. Bragusi 7-1 vs. Rios 12-2

Others: Salazar (7-4), Schneider (10-3)

It seems that Diego Galeano may have worked his way back into the singles lineup while Vince Schneider has sat the last few out.  It’s possible that they could both play but more than likely just 1 will play.  If Axel Alvarez plays at #1 singles (Matt Knoll’s comments above allude to that) we’ll have a matchup between the ITA #1 and #2 players with Julian Lenz the current #1.

#1 singles – Alvarez played at #2 in both the previous matches winning fairly convincingly each time while Lenz beat Harris once and had the other match get halted by the clinch.  Alvarez has won 17 in a row and has only dropped 1 set in his last 9 matches and that’s against 7 ranked opponents.  Lenz has won 4 in a row with wins over #6 Yannick Hanfmann, #7 Andrew Harris, and JUCO #1 Guy Iradukunda. Prediction: Alvarez (OU) in 3

#2 singles – Harris played at #1 in both the previous matches losing once with another not finishing while Lupieri has played at both #2 and #3 and lost badly both times. Lupieri has won 3 of his last 5 though the last 3 were against light competition.  Harris has won 4 of 5 with wins over #5 Soren Hess-Olesen, #21 Winston Lin, #22 Mitchell Frank, and #50 Cameron Norrie with the lone loss to Lenz.  Prediction: Harris (OU) in 2

#3 singles – Webb beat Lupieri in the 1st match at #3 singles and was up early in the 3rd set against Tchoutakian in the 2nd meeting while Tchoutakian dropped the 1st match at #2 against Alvarez. Webb put a stop to a 2-match slide by beating Tulsa’s Matthew Kirby a week ago. Tchoutakian has won 7 of his last 8 though just 1 was against a ranked opponent (Memphis #62 Andrew Watson) while the loss was to USC’s Eric Johnson. Prediction: Tchoutakian (BU) in 3

#4 singles – Ghilea roughed up Vince Schneider in the last meeting and had the huge comeback against Mate Zsiga in the 1st while Galeano sat out the last match and dropped the 1st one in 3 sets to Spencer Papa. Ghilea has won 4 straight and 6 of his last 7 and also had big leads in 2 others that went unfinished while Galeano has won 5 straight since his loss to Papa in Chicago.  Prediction: Ghilea (OU) in 2

#5 singles –  Papa beat Galeano at #4 in the 1st meeting but was trailing Zsiga in the 2nd meeting while Zsiga of course had the tough loss in the 1st meeting to Ghilea. Papa has won 4 straight with quality wins over Nick Naumann, Will Stein, and Shawn Hadavi while Zsiga won 6 in a row since his loss to Ghilea and he also led in 4 others that went unfinished.  Zsiga may be playing the best tennis on the team right now.  Prediction: Zsiga (BU) in 2

#6 singles – Bragusi knocked off Rios in the last meeting but didn’t play the first while Rios did play the first and beat Jose Salazar.  Since the last meeting all 3 of Bragusi’s matches have gone unfinished though he had small leads in all 3 while Rios has won his last 2 though both were against light competition.  Rios has rolled in just about all his matches this year with the exceptions being his first collegiate dual match against Ross Guignon and his matches against Oklahoma.  I think the crowd and the familiarity with the courts will push him past Bragusi this time around. Prediction: Rios (BU) in 3

I feel reasonably confident about 2, 4, and 5 but the matches at 1, 3, and 6 could all potentially swing the other way.  Oklahoma could certainly win this match but I think enough courts will fall Baylor’s way to get them the upset win. Prediction: Baylor 4-3

Previous Meetings This Year:

#1 Oklahoma 4, #3 Baylor 1
Mar 22, 2015 at Indian Wells, California (Indian Wells Tennis Garden)