By Jarrod Leicher | Reporter
The No. 3 Baylor men’s tennis were victorious in their double-header on Saturday sweeping Abilene Christian 7-0 first and then defeating Texas Tech 6-1 in the evening.
In the doubles play against Abilene Christian, Constantin Frantzen and Spencer Furman defeated Oswaldo Cano and Joaquin Delgado 6-3 on court two. Earning the point for Baylor, Adrian Boitan and Ryan Dickerson came out on top with a score of 6-2 against Savan Chhabra and Mihaly Deli on court one. Finishing the doubles sweep on court three, Finn Bass and Alex Garcia defeated Riley Tran and Jose Maria Rastroj 6-2.
Interim head coach Michael Woodson said the Bears have been impressive on the doubles court.
“We’ve been putting a lot of work on the doubles court and it’s really paying off, a lot of our young guys really stepped up earlier today and I was super impressed by the way they were able to take care of business,” Woodson said.
For singles play, Bass was the first to finish, defeating Deli 6-0, 6-2 on court three. Next, Garcia earned a third point for Baylor on court four, winning 6-1, 6-2 against Cano. Clinching the match for the Bears, Rahul Dhokia defeated Ryan Flanagan 6-1, 6-2 on court six.
Pushing the sweep forward, Sebastian Nothhaft defeated Delgado 6-4, 6-2 on court five. Dickerson followed with a 6-1, 6-2 win on court two against Tran for the sixth point. Frantzen was narrowly victorious against Chhabra in a three set victory, dropping the first set 6-7 on court one but coming back strong to win the second set 6-1 and the tiebreaker 1-0 (10-5).
Against Texas Tech in doubles play, Marias Soto and Nick Stachowiak defeated Reed Collier and Isaac Arevalo 6-1 on court two. On court one, Frantzen and Sven Lah got the point for the Bears winning 6-2 against Parker Wynn and Franco Ribero. With the win, Frantzen tied Benjamin Becker’s school record for doubles wins at 104.
“A lot of people have been talking about it, so now that I’m tied it’s feeling more special,” Frantzen said. “It’s not my biggest goal to break it, I’ve got other goals for the team and for myself. But yeah, it means a lot to me because Benjamin Becker was one of the best college players in the last 30 years. It would be crazy to break his record.”
Moving into the singles play, Stachowiak picked up the first win 6-1, 6-3 against Collier on court five. Soto defeated Ilgiz Valiev 6-1,6-3 on court four for the third point. Clinching the win, Furman took a 6-3, 7-6 victory against Arevalo on court six.
Lah fell short against Ribero on court two, losing 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, giving Tech its only point of the night. Charlie Broom got a fifth point against Dimitrios Azoidis, winning 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 on court three.
Narrowly going out on top, Boitan defeated Wynn in the third set 6-7, 6-3, 7-6 on court one to wrap up the match. Woodson said it was a challenging conference victory for the Bears.
“Thats how it goes in the Big 12, none of these matches are easy, at the end of they [it’s] good to get a win and move onto the next one,” Woodson said.
Baylor will face Midwestern State at 6 p.m. Tuesday before returning to conference play against Texas at 6 p.m. Thursday. Both matches will be held at the Hurd Tennis Center
