The University of Miami men’s tennis team defeated the SMU Mustangs 4-3 at the Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex in Dallas on Friday afternoon.
The doubles point was once again down to the wire for the Hurricanes.
It started with an emphatic 6-2 victory from Antonio Prat and Rafael Segado at court two against Trevor Svadja and Jerry Barton of SMU.
Miami’s Nacho Serra Sanchez and Jules Garot then fell 6-3 to Georgi Georgiev and Vikas Deo at court three to even things, meaning verything would come down to the top court.
Medhi Sadaoui and Jakub Kroslak were able to get it done, beating SMU’s Alex Finkelstein and Krish Arora 6-3 after a late break in serve.
Serra Sanchez was the first to finish singles, dominating against Finkelstein 6-3, 6-3 at court two to give UM a 2-0 lead.
No. 113 Prat was the next to finish; he fell 6-1, 7-6(13) to No.1 Svajda at the top court after an excruciating tiebreaker.
Garot added to the lead at court six after he took down SMU’s Noah McDonald 6-2, 7-6(5). The Mustangs responded with a win on court three as Georgiev outlasted Kroslak 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
Miami still had two more chances to clinch the match. The first one was unsuccessful, after Sadaoui lost to Arora 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 on court five.
The whole match came down to court four, in the hands of Segado and Barton. It looked rough for the Hurricanes after Segado fell 4-6 in the first set. He was able to battle back to win the second 7-5 and send it to a match-deciding third set.
The third set was on serve the whole way through. Everything came down to a tiebreaker.
Rafael was able to prevail, winning 7-5 and clinching a Miami victory. A court storm immediately followed match point.
The Hurricanes will look to continue the momentum on the road against Boston College this Sunday, March 22.