By Ben Everett | Sports Writer.
No. 11 Baylor men’s tennis completed their run at the Sherwood Collegiate Cup Sunday in Thousand Oaks, Calif.
On Friday, junior Jimmy Bendeck started off strong with a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(3) over UCLA’s Maxime Cressy followed by a 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-3 victory over USC’s Laurens Verboven to punch a ticket to the quarterfinals.
Sophomore Bjoern Petersen also made his way into the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-1 win over UCLA’s Austin Rapp after defeating Stanford’s Michael Genender, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(6) in the first round.
Top-seeded junior Johannes Schretter fell in the opening round, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 to Stanford’s Jack Barber, but bounced back with a three set win over USC’s Mateusz Smolicki in the consolation round of 16.
Junior Will Little, freshman Roy Smith, sophomore Constantin Frantzen and freshman Matias Soto each went 1-1 on the first day of the tournament while freshmen Sven Lah and Akos Kotorman couldn’t pick up a win on Friday.
On Saturday, Schretter took down UCLA’s Connor Hance, 3-6, 6-3, 1-0(9), to advance to the consolation semifinals.
Bendeck fell in the quarterfinals of the main draw, 3-6, 7-5, 7-5, to Stanford’s Eric Fomba while Petersen was also knocked out of the main draw with a 6-4, 6-1 loss to UCLA’s Keegan Smith in the quarterfinals.
Doubles action began on Saturday, and the Bears went 4-4 on the day. The pairing of Soto and Little took home an opening round 6-4 win over Stanford’s Tom Fawcett and Timothy Sah before falling to USC’s Jack Jaede and Laurens Verboven, 6-1.
The duos of Petersen and Kotorman and Bendeck and Frantzen each picked up opening round wins as well before falling in the second round.
Schretter and Smith fell in the opening round, 6-2, to UCLA’s Connor Hance and Connor Rapp, but picked up a 6-1 consolation win over UCLA’s Lucas Bellemy and Reid Ponder.
On the final day, Schretter and Smith finished off doubles play with a consolation semifinals win UCLA’s Maxime Cressy and Bryce Pereira, 7-5.
In a consolation singles match, Smith took down UCLA’s Connor Rapp, 6-3, 6-2, to finish Baylor’s run.
The Bears open 2018 season with a doubleheader against UMKC at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday in Waco.
