The University of Miami men’s tennis team fell to the Louisville Cardinals 4-3 at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center in Louisville on Friday afternoon.
The match started off with a nailbiter doubles point. The Cardinals cruised at court three, as Hamza El Amine and Pedro Cressoni took down Miami’s Nacho Serra Sanchez and Saud Alhogbani 6-1.
The Hurricanes responded well on the other courts. At court two, Jules Garot and Rafael Segado defeated Louisville’s Matei Onofrei and Russell Lokko 7-5 after a late break.
The doubles point came down to a tiebreaker at the top court. The Hurricanes’ Jakub Kroslak and Antonio Prat were able to rally and defeat the Cardinals’ Walid Ahouda and Andre Steinbach 7-5 in a thrilling tiebreak, giving the doubles point to Miami.
The Hurricanes were initially able to carry over the momentum into singles. Sanchez won emphatically over El Amine 6-0, 6-1 at court two. Garot also dominated, beating Lokko 6-1, 6-2 at court six to give UM a 3-0 lead.
Shortly after, everything started to go downhill for Miami.
Prat fell 6-2, 6-2 at court one to Ahouda, who played an incredible all-around match. At court three, Kroslak came up short against Steinbach 6-4, 6-4 narrowing the Hurricanes’ lead to 3-2.
No. 4 Segado had a strong 7-5 win in the first set, but was unable to sustain his play. Onofrei cruised in the next two sets, 6-1 and 6-2, tying the match at three points each.
The match came down to court five. The match was close the entire way through. Alhogbani was able to win the first set 6-4 before dropping the second 6-4. The third set was a nailbiter until Cressoni was able to break late, winning 6-4 and giving the Cardinals the 4-3 victory.
This was a gut wrenching loss for Miami, dropping its first match of ACC play. The Canes look to bounce back in South Bend on Sunday against Notre Dame. After that, UM returns home next weekend against Wake Forest and NC State.
