Texas A&M
Illinois
Men's Tennis Drops 5-2 Road Decision at Illinois
Mar 05, 2010 | Men's Tennis
March 5, 2010
URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The No. 17-ranked Texas A&M men's tennis team lost a close 5-2 decision at No. 12 Illinois Friday night at the Atkins Tennis Center.
The Aggies (7-3) started play off on a high note winning the doubles point for the fourth consecutive match. Senior co-captain Marcus Lunt (San Antonio, Texas) and sophomore Alexis Klegou (Dunkerque, France) beat Illinois' Bruno Abdelnour and Johnny Hamui, 8-3, at the No. 3 line, while freshman Alberto Bautista (McAllen, Texas) and junior Alexey Grigorov (Moscow, Russia) clinched the early 1-0 lead with a 9-7 victory at No. 2.
The Fighting Illini (6-5) fought back and tied the match at one-all as No. 43-ranked Dennis Nevolo defeated No. 33-ranked Jeff Dadamo (Tampa, Fla.), 6-1, 6-2, at No. 2 singles. Junior All-American and No. 16-ranked Austin Krajicek (Brandon, Fla.) won in straight sets over No. 106-ranked Marek Czerwinski, 6-4, 6-4, at the top of the lineup to improve to an undefeated 8-0 on the season and put the Aggies back up 2-1. Illinois would go on to win the remaining four singles matches to avenge a 4-3 loss to A&M last spring in College Station.
"We had our chances," Texas A&M head coach Steve Denton said. "We won the doubles point, but I was very disappointed in how we played in singles tonight. We didn't play like we were capable of playing. Give Illinois a lot of credit. They played with more fire and played the big points better than we did. I thought we played fairly passive and not aggressive enough. That's what it really came down to. When you play indoor tennis, you have to be more aggressive, and unfortunately, we didn't tonight. There is not a guy on this team that feels good about the effort we gave today, but we have another opportunity in less than 48 hours to redeem ourselves (at Ohio State)."
Up next, the Aggies will take on 2009 NCAA runner-up and third-ranked Ohio State (11-1) on Sunday, March 7 at noon (CT) at The Ohio State University Varsity Indoor Tennis Center in Columbus, Ohio. Live scoring and updates will be available at: www.OhioStateBuckeyes.com.
(12) ILLINOIS 5, (17) TEXAS A&M 2
March 5, 2010
Atkins Tennis Center
at Urbana-Champaign, Ill.
SINGLES
No. 1 - (16) Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M) def. (106) Marek Czerwinski (Illinois), 6-4, 6-4.
No. 2 - (43) Dennis Nevolo (Illinois) def. (33) Jeff Dadamo (Texas A&M), 6-1, 6-2.
No. 3 - Johnny Hamui (Illinois) def. Alexis Klegou (Texas A&M), 6-4, 6-4.
No. 4 - (66) Abe Souza (Illinois) def. Alexey Grigorov (Texas A&M), 7-6, 6-3.
No. 5 - Stephen Hoh (Illinois) def. Alberto Bautista (Texas A&M), 6-7 (2), 6-4, 1-0 (2).
No. 6 - Connor Roth (Illinois) def. Marcus Lunt (Texas A&M), 4-6, 6-1, 7-5.
DOUBLES
No. 1 - (8) Czerwinski-Nevolo (Illinois) def. (9) Dadamo-Krajicek (Texas A&M), 9-8.
No. 2 - Bautista-Grigorov (Texas A&M) def. Souza-Roth (Illinois), 9-7.
No. 3 - Lunt-Klegou (Texas A&M) def. Bruno Abdelnour-Hamui (Illinois), 8-3.
ORDER OF FINISH
Singles: 2, 1, 3, 4, 6*, 5
Doubles: 3, 1, 2
Players Mentioned
