Friday, April 19
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
12 pm
Rice University
4
vs
0
Charlotte
Doubles Win Sparks Owls into C-USA Semifinals
4/19/2019 8:09:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Take on top seed FAU at noon on Saturday
The Lead: Sumit Sarkar and Eric Rutledge staged a pair of rallies to give Rice an early lead with the doubles point and then added a pair of points on their own with straight set wins in singles as Rice opened the 2019 Conference USA Men's Tennis Championship with a 4-0 defeat of Charlotte. The fifth seeded Owls advanced to take on another group of Owls, top seed Florida Atlantic, in one of two semifinal matches at noon on Saturday.
Doubles: The Owls (14-12) fell behind early with a loss at the third line, but bounced back with a win at the second position, turning the point over to a matchup of a pair of doubles teams ranked in the national top 50. Rutledge and Sarkar, currently ranked 47th, fell behind early to Charlotte's 36th ranked Constandinos Christoforou and Luca Keist, rallied to take a 5-3 lead, then had to scramble to force a tiebreak and then rally from a 5-3 deficit to win the last four points and capture the first point for Rice.
Singles: Unlike their recent trend to follow a solid doubles point with a slow start in singles, the Owls race out to wins in four of six first sets of singles. Sukar improved to 17-5 on the season, winning for the 10th time in his last 11 matches to extend the lead to 2-0 and his doubles partner Rutledge followed shortly after at the third line to extend the lead to 3-0. Sophomore Jacob Eskeland delivered the clinch, with a 6-4, 6-3 win at the second line.
Notes: Sarkar's 17 wins are the second most by an Owl playing at the first singles line since 1994. He matched his head coach, Efe Ustundag, who was 17-6 in 1999. Robert Searle has the most wins at the first singles position since 1994, finishing 18-54 in 2005. Statistics for records at individual lineup positions are not available prior to 1994.
Efe Ustundag: "The important part was the doubles point. We leaned on our number one doubles team a lot during the semester. They were a break down late in the set and made the break back, then had a big comeback in the tiebreak. We saw a lot of first sets went our way. The guys who went up a set took care of business. All the credit to our guys for finishing the matches we were ahead in."
Up Next: Rice and FAU will be meeting for the third time in history, but the first time in Conference USA play. Rice won the initial meeting in 2001 in Boca Raton 4-1, while FAU beat Rice 4-2 in another dual in Boca Raton in 2009.
Doubles: The Owls (14-12) fell behind early with a loss at the third line, but bounced back with a win at the second position, turning the point over to a matchup of a pair of doubles teams ranked in the national top 50. Rutledge and Sarkar, currently ranked 47th, fell behind early to Charlotte's 36th ranked Constandinos Christoforou and Luca Keist, rallied to take a 5-3 lead, then had to scramble to force a tiebreak and then rally from a 5-3 deficit to win the last four points and capture the first point for Rice.
Singles: Unlike their recent trend to follow a solid doubles point with a slow start in singles, the Owls race out to wins in four of six first sets of singles. Sukar improved to 17-5 on the season, winning for the 10th time in his last 11 matches to extend the lead to 2-0 and his doubles partner Rutledge followed shortly after at the third line to extend the lead to 3-0. Sophomore Jacob Eskeland delivered the clinch, with a 6-4, 6-3 win at the second line.
Notes: Sarkar's 17 wins are the second most by an Owl playing at the first singles line since 1994. He matched his head coach, Efe Ustundag, who was 17-6 in 1999. Robert Searle has the most wins at the first singles position since 1994, finishing 18-54 in 2005. Statistics for records at individual lineup positions are not available prior to 1994.
Efe Ustundag: "The important part was the doubles point. We leaned on our number one doubles team a lot during the semester. They were a break down late in the set and made the break back, then had a big comeback in the tiebreak. We saw a lot of first sets went our way. The guys who went up a set took care of business. All the credit to our guys for finishing the matches we were ahead in."
Up Next: Rice and FAU will be meeting for the third time in history, but the first time in Conference USA play. Rice won the initial meeting in 2001 in Boca Raton 4-1, while FAU beat Rice 4-2 in another dual in Boca Raton in 2009.
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
3,2,1
#1 Singles Match
12
66
Luca Keist / 0 [CHA]
14
#2 Singles Match
12
66
Ignasi de Rueda / 0 [CHA]
43
#3 Singles Match
12
66
Benjamin Wayand / 0 [CHA]
24
#4 Singles Match
123
460
C. Christoforou / 0 [CHA]
61UF
#5 Singles Match
123
740
Oliver Sec / 0 [CHA]
53UF
#6 Singles Match
123
520
A. Garcia Moreno / 0 [CHA]
73UF
Order of Finish:
1,3,2
Players Mentioned
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