March 31, 2013
LAS VEGAS, Nev. - The No. 45 San Diego State Men's Tennis Team pulled off an amazing comeback on Sunday to defeat Mountain West rival No. 73 UNLV, 4-3, at Fertitta Tennis Complex.
The Aztecs (13-6, 3-0 MW) rebounded after losing the doubles point and the first two singles matches to fall behind, 3-0, before winning the final four singles decisions to knock off UNLV for the second-straight season.
Sophomore Andranik Khachatryan began the comeback with a victory over Carlos Di Laura, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, in the No. 6 slot for the Aztecs first point of the match, and sophomore Thorsten Bertsch followed with a victory over Tamas Batyi in the No. 2 spot, 7-5, 7-5.
Freshman Marvin Tawasi came through with a three-set victory against Charlie Alvarado, 3-6, 7-5, 6-1, to knot the score, 3-3, and junior Juan Florez clinched the dual-match win with a decision over Johannes Markel, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-2.
SDSU fell behind in doubles play to begin the match, as the No. 1 team of Bertsch and junior Hunter Nicholas lost to Ace Matias and Bernard Schoeman, 8-6, and the No. 2 duo of senior Derek Siddiqui and Khachatryan fell to Markel and Batyi, 8-4. The Aztecs No. 3 unit of Florez and Tawasi pulled out a win over Gilad Berman and Carlos Di Laura, 8-5, but not until after UNLV sealed the doubles point.
The Aztecs return to action on Wednesday at home against cross-town foe San Diego. The match begins at 3 p.m. PT at Aztec Tennis Center.