TUCSON, Ariz. - Arizona Men's Tennis is one step closer to the ITA National Indoor Championship after a 4-0 defeat over Southern California Saturday. The Cats will advance to the Kickoff championship match tomorrow, Sunday, Jan. 26 against Central Florida at 1:00 p.m. MST.
For the second consecutive year, Arizona hosted ITA Kickoff Weekend on their home courts at Lanelle Robson Tennis Center. Saturday's match began with doubles play between the Trojans and Wildcats, where the point came down to court one. After dropping court three and winning court two, Arizona's
Colton Smith and Inaki Cabrera-Bello secured the doubles point for the Cats with a 6-3 win over USC's Tristan Bradley and Peter Makk.
Back on the courts for singles, Arizona had to win all but three matches to advance. First to finish was freshman
Filip Gustafsson on court five. Gustafsson battled back from a defecit in set one to win 6-3, 6-1 over Karl Lee. The freshman is now 4-0 in dual match singles play. Pushing the score to 3-0 was No. 6
Jay Friend on court two, with a dominant 6-4, 6-2 win over Nathan Trouve. Back to face off against one another on court one was No. 5
Colton Smith and Peter Makk. Smith took set one in a 7-6(3) breaker, and clinched the 4-0 match with a swift 6-1 second set.
Every player on Arizona's team currently remains undefeated in singles play.
The Cats will go on to compete against UCF tomorrow for a chance to qualify for the ITA National Indoor Championships next month. The first time in program history that Arizona qualified for the tournament was last season.
Results
Doubles (Order of finish: 1, 3, 2)
1. Smith/Cabrera-Bello def. Bradley/Makk 6-3
2. Friend/Padgham def. Morazzi/Trouve 6-4
3. Iakubenko/Weightman def. Gustafsson/Stelse 6-2
Singles (Order of finish: 5, 2, 1)
1. No. 5
Colton Smith def. Peter Makk 7-6(3), 6-1
2. No. 6
Jay Friend def. Oscar Weightman 6-4, 6-2
3. No. 61
Zoran Ludoski vs. Nathan Trouve 7-6(9), 2-3, unfinished
4.
Casper Christensen vs. Volodymyr Iakubenko 6-1, 2-6, 0-3, unfinished
5.
Filip Gustafsson def. Karl Lee 6-3, 6-1
6. Sasha Rozin vs. Matteo Morazzi 5-7, 5-4, unfinished
