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Men's tennis has a tough time in Classic
The Fresno State men’s tennis team struggled in the Bulldog Tennis Classic over the weekend against a field of teams including USC, UCLA and California. The tournament’s No. 1 seed in flight A, Fresno State senior Stefan Suta, lost in his opening match against USC’s Drew Hoskins, immediately putting him in the consolation bracket. Unranked Bulldogs senior Greg Shearer advanced into the third round of match play before being knocked off by Santa Clara’s Gernot Fischer in straight sets 6-3, 6-2. Southern California’s Hoskins, who earlier defeated Fresno State’s No. 1-seed Suta, advanced to the flight A finals before losing to UCLA’s Alberto Francis 6-4, 6-4. Fresno State did see some success in doubles, however. The team of Suta and Shearer, flight A’s No. 1 seed, mowed through opponents to reach the semi-finals against the team of Alberto Francis and Krzystof Kwinta, the tournament’s third seed. Suta and Shearer jumped out to an early lead over UCLA’s tandem of Francis and Kwinta until Shearer took his turn to serve at 4-2. UCLA broke Shearer’s serve to win the game and followed by another victory on Francis’ serve to even the score at 4-4. UCLA also broke Shearer’s serve a second time later in the match to put them up a game in the match. “ My serve just let us down a little bit,” Shearer said. The Fresno State duo came back to even the match at six games apiece after Francis ended the game with a double fault. With the Bulldogs ahead seven games to six, Fresno State struggled to maintain the lead, and on an ace by Kwinta that appeared to be two feet wide, UCLA tied the match at seven. UCLA once again broke Shearer’s serve and took an 8-7 lead. Fresno State fought off a match point and forced a tiebreaker. Down 4-3 in the tiebreaker, UCLA went on a 3-1 run to win the match and advance to the finals where it would defeat the team from Cal. Fresno State finished the match with 32 unforced errors, two fewer than the Bruins duo, but many came during crucial points of the match, often to give a game to UCLA. “ I think they’re beatable,” Suta said. “We didn’t make the returns when we had the break points,” he added. If that were the case, the Bulldogs may have run away with the match. “ We could have won the match 8-4 or 8-5 if we would have (won the break points),” Suta said. The Bulldogs did make sure they gave the UCLA tandem their due. “ They’re pretty solid,” Shearer said. “They’re big guys.” |
