Four Down, One to Go

NORMAN, Okla. – The Oklahoma men's tennis team will be well represented on the final day of play at the 2014 USTA/ITA Central Region Championships on Monday at the Headington Family Tennis Center.

Oklahoma won four of its six total matches Sunday to send doubles team Axel Alvarez and Dane Webb to the championship match of main draw doubles and Alvarez to the semifinal round of main draw singles.

Play started Sunday in the doubles draw, where Alvarez and Webb paired in a semifinal match with Jack Hamburg and Mathieu Froment of Minnesota. The third-seeded Sooner duo jumped on Minnesota early and never relented, winning the match, 6-3, 6-4, by virtue of a suffocating service game.

Alvarez and Webb will square off with seventh-seeded Tin Ostojic and Tomislav Gregurovic of Wichita State in the finals of main draw doubles Monday at 9 a.m.

Alvarez is no stranger to the championship stage. He paired with former Sooner Guillermo Alcorta to win the 2012 Central Region Doubles Championship.

After a short rest period, Alvarez, a junior, was back on the court for his round of 16 singles match with tenth-seeded Ostojic. Alvarez dominated the first set, winning 6-2, and broke Ostojic once in the second to take the set 6-4 and win the match.

In his afternoon quarterfinals match with No. 13 seed Jack Hamburg of Minnesota, Alvarez continued his dominant play early, winning the first set, 6-2. Hamburg rallied to take the second set 6-4, and consistently pressured Alvarez in the third, forcing the tiebreaker. The Asturias, Spain native was relentless in the extra frame. He jumped on Hamburg early with a pair of breaks and never let up, winning, 7-4.

“Axel got through two tough singles matches,” Sooner associate head coach Bo Hodge said. “I was proud of how he competed.”

Monday will be another long day for Alvarez. He will face unseeded Matt Hagan of Iowa in the semifinals of main draw singles following the conclusion of his doubles match.

The championship match of main draw singles will take place Monday afternoon.

Senior Dane Webb and redshirt senior Nick Papac also were both in action Sunday for the Sooners but each fell short of reaching Monday's play.

Webb opened Sunday by completing a remarkable comeback to win his third round match with Felix Corwin of Minnesota, 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-4. After dropping the first set in a tiebreaker, Webb settled in and took the next two. In the third set, Webb broke Corwin once early and then held serve for the remainder of the set to take the match.

Webb was in for another marathon in his quarterfinal match with No. 12 seed Ben Lott of Drake. After dropping the first set, 5-7, Webb easily controlled the second, winning 6-2.

In the third, Webb had two great opportunities to put the match away. Serving, and up 5-4, Webb had match point at 40-40 (no-ad scoring). Lott survived that scare only to fall behind love-40 in the next game before winning the next four points to force a tiebreaker. Lott carried that momentum into the tiebreaker. He broke Webb three times early and never looked back, winning 7-2. After eight total sets on the day, including two tiebreakers, Webb lay exhausted on the court.

“Dane played two extremely long singles matches today,” Hodge said. “He competed hard like he always does. He just lost some big no-ad points.”

Papac also played a third round singles match Sunday. Facing third-seeded Leonardo Toledo of Minnesota, Papac dropped the first set 3-6. Papac controlled much of the second set but Toledo earned a break late and took the set 7-5 to win the match.

“Nick played well this morning, but he just ran into someone who played a little better than he did,” Hodge said.

For more tournament information, including updated draws, schedules and live video, visit our tournament page here.

For more information on OU Men't Tennis, follow the team on Twitter at @OU_MTennis.