Indiana men’s tennis started its weekend against the No. 26 UCLA, whose 6-3 record mirrored Hoosiers’.
However, despite a hot start at home, Indiana fell to UCLA 2-4 on Friday at the IU Tennis Center.
Redshirt junior Facundo Yunis and sophomore Braeden Gelletich played their eighth straight doubles match together, where they made quick work of UCLA sophomore Rudy Quan and freshman Bengt Reinhard 6-2. This brought them to 4-4 together on the season after starting 2-4.
The No. 57 ranked doubles duo of graduate student Michael Andre and sophomore Matteo Antonescu against redshirt junior Emon van Loben Sels and senior Gianluca Ballotta followed. The Hoosiers started their match going back and forth. But winning a non-service game gave them the edge and Indiana a 1-0 lead to start the weekend. Redshirt junior Sam Landau and senior Jip van Assendelft left their match unfinished as it was going into a tiebreak tied 6-6.
Singles is where the Indiana squad started to struggle. No. 4 doubles was the first match to end and saw Andre battling in the first set, but in the second set he was ran around the court and eventually lost 6-4, 6-2.
Redshirt freshman Aidan Atwood, who was playing in just his fifth singles match of the season, won his first set 6-4 and continued to work the baseline in the second set, coming out on top 6-4 again. Indiana led 2-1 after Atwood’s win.
Gelletich had a close first set that nearly went to tiebreak but ended 7-5 in favor of the Bruins. The second set didn’t go his way however, and unforced errors on his groundstrokes led to a 6-2 loss tying up the match. This continued to go in favor of UCLA throughout the rest of the match.
Van Assendelft was up against No. 104 singles player Quan. After going down in the first set 1-6, he won the second set 6-4, sending it to a third. In the third, van Assendlft couldn’t hang with Quan, and it was much like the first set. He lost 6-1, 4-6, 6-1.
For Yunis, he kept it close losing narrowly in a first set tiebreak but lost the second and ended the match for the Hoosiers with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 loss. Landau’s match was left unfinished in the third set as the Bruins won 4-2.
In the second match of the weekend, Indiana was set to face off against No. 22 ranked USC, whotook down the Hoosiers 4-3 on Sunday at the IU Tennis Center.
The Trojans started the day off with a No. 3 doubles win against Gelletich and Yunis 6-3. The Hoosiers responded with No. 2 doubles teammates Andre and Antonescu, who secured their second doubles win of the weekend 6-4, leaving it up to the No. 1 doubles match for the point.
Landau and van Assendelft went point for point against the Trojans’ No. 1 doubles duo of sophomore Andrin Casanova and graduate student Jack McCarthy. They were tied 6-6 heading into a tiebreak. Landau’s ability to paint the lines ended up being the difference in the match and after a long 18 points, they won 10-8. The Hoosiers were up 1-0.
Atwood continued his No. 6 singles dominance, improving his record to 5-1 at the spot this season. He had a tough first set but dominated in the second winning 7-5, 6-0 and the Hoosiers had the early advantage.
Atwood was one of the only highlights of the weekend at the singles position, however, as the Trojans started to fight back. Andre was up against Casanova next, where he throughout the match, ultimately lost 6-3, 6-3.
Landau, who struggled in his first set at No. 1 singles, rallied to get back into it in the second, but he was hitting the alleys too much in the end losing 6-2, 7-5, which tied the match at two.
After the long doubles match, van Assendelft faced a similar situation in the first set of his match. It went to a tiebreak that he lost 11-9, but he came back to win the second 6-4. In the third, a few double faults led to a 6-1 loss that gave the Trojans the lead.
Gelletich brought the Hoosiers back into play with a three-set win which he had to comeback for when he lost the first set. He went 1-1 on the weekend and after winning this match 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. With the contest tied, it would come down to a final No. 3 singles match to determine the winner.
Yunis looked strong and took the first set 6-3 but couldn’t overcome a second set tiebreak where he lost 7-6 (7-2). The third set went similarly to van Assendelft’s third set and he couldn’t contend, losing 6-1. The loss dropped the Hoosiers to 0-2 in the Big Ten.
Indiana will travel to Eugene, Oregon, for a match Friday against Oregon and will finish off its road trip on Sunday in Seattle against Washington.
