Men's Tennis Drops a Heartbreaker to Texas Tech, 4-3

NORMAN, Okla. The University of Oklahoma men's tennis team dropped another close match on Sunday to Texas Tech, 4-3, at the Headington Family Tennis Center in Norman. The loss puts the Sooners at 14-8 overall and 1-5 in the Big 12.

“This was a tough loss,” said head coach Paul Lockwood. “We had our chances, but we were unable to capitalize on them.”

Oklahoma started off strong by winning the doubles point. Senior Alexei Ivanov and junior Marek Velicka defeated Adrian Prpic and Christian Rojmar, 8-5, at the No. 1 position, and senior Tommy Garrison and sophomore Federico Chavarria clinched the point for Oklahoma after handing Michael Breler and Dimitrio Martinez an 8-3 loss at No. 2. Texas Tech defaulted at the No. 3 position.

In singles, Velicka continued the Sooners' momentum by winning the first match, where he upset Prpic, 6-3, 6-3, who is ranked 86th in the country. However, Oklahoma struggled in the next three matches at Nos. 2, 4 and 6. Ivanov fell to Martinez, 7-5, 6-3, and senior Lee Gregg followed with a loss in straight sets to Sinisa Markovic, 6-3, 6-4. Senior Matt Long rebounded after losing the first set with a win in the second set but ended up dropping to Teddy DiBlasi, 6-3, 2-6, 6-1.

With Oklahoma down 3-2, Garrison's match against Rojmar proved to be intense. Garrison dropped the first set, 7-6, after losing the tiebreaker, 7-2, but bounced back and took the second set, 6-2. In the third set, Rojmar tied it at 5-5, but Garrison pushed ahead and won the third set, 7-5.

With the score tied at 3-3, the match came down to the battle at No. 5 where freshman Sergey Avdeyev and Breler were facing off. Like Garrison, Avdeyev dropped his first set but won the second set. Avdeyev went up 3-0 in the third set, but Breler pulled away to win the set and the match for Texas Tech.

This is Oklahoma's second close loss to Big 12 opponents this weekend. The Sooners fell 4-2 to Baylor on Saturday in a match that lasted from 11:30 p.m. on Friday to 3:30 a.m. on Saturday.

Oklahoma will take a break from Big 12 matches on Wednesday when the squad plays Arkansas at 5 p.m. in Norman.

Doubles
1. Ivanov/Velicka (OU) def. Prpic/Rojmar (TT), 8-5
2. Garrison/Federico Chavarria (OU) def. Breler/Martinez (TT), 8-3
3. Long/Thomas (OU) vs. DiBlasi/Markovic (TT), default
Order of finish: 1, 2, 3

Singles
1. No. 95 Marek Velicka (OU) def. No. 86 Adrian Prpic (TT), 6-3, 6-3
2. Dimitrio Martinez (TT) def. Alexei Ivanov (OU), 7-5, 6-3
3. Tommy Garrison (OU) def. Christian Rojmar (TT), 6-7 (2), 6-2, 7-5
4. Sinisa Markovic (TT) def. Lee Gregg (OU), 6-3, 6-4
5. Michael Breler (TT) def. Sergey Avdeyev (OU), 6-1, 1-6, 6-3
6. Teddy DiBlasi (TT) def. Matt Long (OU), 6-3, 2-6, 6-1
Order of finish: 1, 2, 4, 6, 3, 5

Men's Tennis Drops a Heartbreaker to Texas Tech, 4-3

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Men's Tennis Drops a Heartbreaker to Texas Tech, 4-3

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