Feb. 18, 2015
MALIBU, Calif. - The San Diego State men's tennis team fell short in an entertaining road match against No. 48 Pepperdine, 4-3, on Wednesday afternoon at Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center.
San Diego State (4-4, 0-1 MW) lost the doubles point to begin the day, despite another winning performance by the Aztecs' No. 1 unit of junior Freddy Gelbrich (Isernhagen, Germany) and sophomore Hendrik Jebens (Stuttgart, Germany). The duo defeated Pepperdine's team of Guilherme Hadlich and Rakshay Thakkar, 7-5, but it wasn't quite enough.
SDSU's No. 3 team of senior Andranik Khachatryan (Burbank, Calif.) and sophomore Marko Goles-Babic (Zagreb, Croatia) dropped its match to Tom Hill and Stefan Menichella, 6-2, and Pepperdine (3-3) clinched the doubles point when the Aztecs' No. 2 team of senior Thorsten Bertsch (Mannheim, Germany) and sophomore Jonas Meinzer (Buggingen, Germany) fell in a tight battle to Lautaro Pane and Pedro Iamachkine, 7-6.
Singles play began with Jebens falling short in his No. 3 singles match to Thakkar, 6-1, 6-3, before Goles-Babic got SDSU on the board with his No. 4 singles victory over Pane, 6-4, 6-0. Gelbrich, who was named Mountain West Player of the Week on Wednesday, won his No. 1 singles match against Menichella, 6-4, 6-4, but sophomore Milen Ianakiev (Elz, Germany) lost a close, three-set decision on the No. 6 singles court to Hill, 6-1, 1-6, 4-6.
Bertsch knotted the dual-match score, 3-3, with his comeback No. 2 singles win over Hadlich, 0-6, 6-4, 6-4, however, Khachatryan was topped in three sets on the No. 5 singles court by Iamachkine, 6-3, 5-7, 2-6, as the Waves clinched the dual-match victory.
San Diego State resumes dual-match play on Friday, Feb. 20, when it plays host to No. 21 South Carolina beginning at 2 p.m. PT at Aztec Tennis Center.