Sunday, March 1
Houston, TX
11 AM
Rice University
3
vs
4
SMU
Photo by: Maria Lysaker | Rice Athletics
Mustangs Edge Owls in First Turpin Cup
3/1/2020 5:24:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Suspended match vs. Prairie View resumes at 2 p.m. Monday
Houston: The inaugural Turpin Cup came down to the final match of the day before SMU emerged with a hard-fought 4-3 loss over Rice at the George R. Brown Tennis Center on Sunday. The Owls second match of the day with Prairie View was suspended by rain and will be resumed at 2 p.m. on Monday.
Doubles: The Mustangs took the early advantage with breaks on the second two lines and while the Owls team of Eric Rutledge and Wes Barnett battled back to within a point of taking a 5-4 lead on court three, SMU grabbed the initial point of the match with wins at the first two lines.
Singles: In need of four points, the Owls found two at the fifth and sixth lines as Eric Rutledge rolled to a win on five and and Conrad Russell battled back from a 5-2 deficit in his second set to avoid a third set and cut the lead to 3-2 at the sixth line. Sumit Sarkar ground out a tough tiebreaker in his opening set and then coasted to a 6-1 win in the second set to knot the match at 3-3, leaving the outcome to the third line where Campbell Salmon and SMU's Ethan Leon were locked in a tight battle. The deciding point was delayed an additional 25 minutes due to a brief rain shower before Leon held on his last two service games to take the match with a 6-4 win.
Efe Ustundag: "You go down 3-0 against a team that has won a lot of matches this year and it gets to be too big of a hole. We took three first sets and Campbell was came back from 5-3 down to tie it, then loses two straight games on deuce point. In order to pull off a comeback like that, we've got to make those games go our way, and we didn't. I would have thought we'd have played a better level of doubles. The energy was there at times, but we need to play at a higher level. At one point, it looked like we were going to be blown off the court, then all the sudden we get back into on three. We're serving at 3-5 at number one and if we hold, you never know. At the bottom of the (singles) lineup we went with a hot hand and with experience. Conrad has been playing well of late and Eric had a really good week of practice and went out and took care of business. Sumit has had back-to-back weeks were he had a battle in the first set and then won comfortably. We have to figure out the rest of the lineup. It's good to have Jacob (Eskeland) back at two. It's been a long road to get back to where he was playing at the end of last year. This was the first time this year when we had all 10 guys healthy and we had options. We put the six guys out we felt were the best combination, but we came up a match short."
Up Next: The Owls (3-6) will travel to Austin next Sunday to take on defending national champion Texas at 3:30. They return to GRBTC on March 11 when they host 12th ranked TCU at noon.
Tennis Match Results
SMU vs Rice
3/1/2020 at Houston, Texas
(George R. Brown Tennis Center)
SMU 4, Rice 3
Singles competition
1. Sumit Sarkar def. Caleb Chakravarthi (SMU) 7-6 (7-5), 6-1
2. Carles Sarrio (SMU) def. Jacob Eskeland 6-2, 6-3
3. Ethan Leon (SMU) def. Campbell Salmon 7-5, 6-4
4. Huntley Allen (SMU) def. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz 6-1, 6-2
5. Eric Rutledge def. Jordi Redelijk (SMU) 6-3, 6-4
6. Conrad Russell def. Jan-Simon Vrbsky (SMU) 6-4, 7-5
Doubles competition
1. Ethan Leon/Carles Sarrio (SMU) def. Conrad Russell/Sumit Sarkar 6-3
2. Caleb Chakravarthi/Tomas Vaise (SMU) def. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz/Campbell Salmon 6-2
3. Wes Barnett/Eric Rutledge vs. Juan Jose Bianchi/Jan-Simon Vrbsky (SMU) 4-4, unfinished
Match Notes:
SMU 11-5
Rice 3-6
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1); Singles (4,2,5,6,1,3)
2020 Turpin Cup
25 minute rain delay
T-3:32 A-121
Doubles: The Mustangs took the early advantage with breaks on the second two lines and while the Owls team of Eric Rutledge and Wes Barnett battled back to within a point of taking a 5-4 lead on court three, SMU grabbed the initial point of the match with wins at the first two lines.
Singles: In need of four points, the Owls found two at the fifth and sixth lines as Eric Rutledge rolled to a win on five and and Conrad Russell battled back from a 5-2 deficit in his second set to avoid a third set and cut the lead to 3-2 at the sixth line. Sumit Sarkar ground out a tough tiebreaker in his opening set and then coasted to a 6-1 win in the second set to knot the match at 3-3, leaving the outcome to the third line where Campbell Salmon and SMU's Ethan Leon were locked in a tight battle. The deciding point was delayed an additional 25 minutes due to a brief rain shower before Leon held on his last two service games to take the match with a 6-4 win.
Efe Ustundag: "You go down 3-0 against a team that has won a lot of matches this year and it gets to be too big of a hole. We took three first sets and Campbell was came back from 5-3 down to tie it, then loses two straight games on deuce point. In order to pull off a comeback like that, we've got to make those games go our way, and we didn't. I would have thought we'd have played a better level of doubles. The energy was there at times, but we need to play at a higher level. At one point, it looked like we were going to be blown off the court, then all the sudden we get back into on three. We're serving at 3-5 at number one and if we hold, you never know. At the bottom of the (singles) lineup we went with a hot hand and with experience. Conrad has been playing well of late and Eric had a really good week of practice and went out and took care of business. Sumit has had back-to-back weeks were he had a battle in the first set and then won comfortably. We have to figure out the rest of the lineup. It's good to have Jacob (Eskeland) back at two. It's been a long road to get back to where he was playing at the end of last year. This was the first time this year when we had all 10 guys healthy and we had options. We put the six guys out we felt were the best combination, but we came up a match short."
Up Next: The Owls (3-6) will travel to Austin next Sunday to take on defending national champion Texas at 3:30. They return to GRBTC on March 11 when they host 12th ranked TCU at noon.
Tennis Match Results
SMU vs Rice
3/1/2020 at Houston, Texas
(George R. Brown Tennis Center)
SMU 4, Rice 3
Singles competition
1. Sumit Sarkar def. Caleb Chakravarthi (SMU) 7-6 (7-5), 6-1
2. Carles Sarrio (SMU) def. Jacob Eskeland 6-2, 6-3
3. Ethan Leon (SMU) def. Campbell Salmon 7-5, 6-4
4. Huntley Allen (SMU) def. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz 6-1, 6-2
5. Eric Rutledge def. Jordi Redelijk (SMU) 6-3, 6-4
6. Conrad Russell def. Jan-Simon Vrbsky (SMU) 6-4, 7-5
Doubles competition
1. Ethan Leon/Carles Sarrio (SMU) def. Conrad Russell/Sumit Sarkar 6-3
2. Caleb Chakravarthi/Tomas Vaise (SMU) def. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz/Campbell Salmon 6-2
3. Wes Barnett/Eric Rutledge vs. Juan Jose Bianchi/Jan-Simon Vrbsky (SMU) 4-4, unfinished
Match Notes:
SMU 11-5
Rice 3-6
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1); Singles (4,2,5,6,1,3)
2020 Turpin Cup
25 minute rain delay
T-3:32 A-121
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
2,1
#1 Singles Match
12
Caleb Chakravarthi / 0 [SMU]
61
76
#2 Singles Match
12
Carles Sarrio / 0 [SMU]
66
23
#3 Singles Match
12
Ethan Leon / 0 [SMU]
76
54
#4 Singles Match
12
Huntley Allen / 0 [SMU]
66
12
#5 Singles Match
12
Jordi Redelijk / 0 [SMU]
34
66
#6 Singles Match
12
Jan-Simon Vrbsky / 0 [SMU]
45
67
Order of Finish:
4,2,5,6,1,3
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
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