Alvarez Wins on First Day of Singles Championship

TULSA, Okla. – Oklahoma men's tennis senior Axel Alvarez started play in the NCAA Singles Championship with a three-set win over No. 17 Austin Smith on Wednesday at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla.

Playing less than 24 hours after OU fell 4-1 to Virginia in the national title match on Tuesday, Alvarez, Oklahoma's all-time leader in career wins and career singles wins, took a close first set from Smith and dominated the decisive third to take the win. He advances to the round of 32 on Thursday where he will take on No. 65 Uros Petronijevic of San Diego at 13:20 p.m. CT.

"Axel did a great job bouncing back after our tough loss yesterday. That is always the most difficult match and he really battled his way through it.”
— Head Coach John Roddick

“Axel did a great job bouncing back after our tough loss yesterday,” head coach John Roddick said. “That is always the most difficult match and he really battled his way through it.”

It was an up and down first set for Alvarez. The senior broke Smith in his first service game to lead 2-0, but gave a break right back. Both players held serve until, leading 6-5, Alvarez broke Smith to claim the first set 7-5.

The second set saw both players hold serve to 3-all, but Smith took over from there. He broke Alvarez twice and held once to win 6-3 and force a decisive third set.

Alvarez quickly arrested that momentum. He stole Smith's first two service games and held twice to jump out to an early 4-0 lead. That's all Alvarez would need. He took the third set 6-2 to claim the win.

Alvarez was also slated to play doubles with partner Andrew Harris in the 32-team NCAA Doubles Championship which begins Thursday, but the duo withdrew. Junior Alex Ghilea was selected as an alternate for the singles championship, but a spot did not open up and he will not compete.