FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – San Diego State men’s tennis took on Arkansas in the first leg of its road trip on Friday. The Aztecs fought to rally from behind in singles competition, forcing three tiebreakers and a third set in three matches, but were ultimately blanked 4-0 by the Razorbacks.
San Diego State falls to 1-6 overall while Arkansas improves to 7-1 on the season.
The Razorbacks took an early lead after capturing the doubles point with wins on courts one and three. Eugenio Gonzalez Fitzmaurice and Finn Willman were bested 6-0 by Jakub Vrba and Lukas Palovic in the third spot before Arkansas’ Ben Weintraub and Eric Padgham clinched the point with a 6-3 victory over William Kleege and Denis Maijorov on court one. Imran Daniel Hazli and Aleksi Lofman were neck-and-neck with Dmitry Kopilevich and Brendan Boland in the second spot, down 5-4 when the point was earned.
In singles play, Padgham put the second point on the board for the Razorbacks, with Kleege getting tripped up 6-4, 6-3 on court six. Boland then extended the lead, taking court five by a score of 6-4, 6-4 over Maijorov.
Courts two, three and four were back-and-forth battles, with each of them going to a third set. In the second spot, Lofman took a tight first set 7-6 (9-7) over Gabriel Elicha Navas before falling 6-4 in the second. The Aztec was ahead 2-0 when the match was called. Over on court three, Willman won his first set 7-5 over Weintraub, but dropped the second by the same score. The third set was left unfinished at 2-0 in the Razorback’s favor. On the fourth court, Gonzalez Fitzmaurice earned a 6-4 win over Kopilevich, but was bested 6-3 in the second set and was at a 2-1 disadvantage in the unfinished third set.
Vrba, the 19th-ranked singles player in the nation, clinched the match for Arkansas on the top court, with both sets decided by a tiebreaker. Hazli fought to the final point against the top 20 opponent, but fell 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5).
“It was a hard-fought match this evening against a good Arkansas team,” said Head Coach Gene Carswell. “We forced three matches to three sets and number one in singles to two tiebreak sets. It wasn’t quite enough to get it done, but we know we’re heading in the right direction.”
Next up, the Aztecs play at Tulsa at 11 a.m. PT on Sunday.