Hogs Take Down No. 21 Crimson Tide in 4-3 Thriller

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – After a four-hour marathon that featured six tiebreak sets, the No. 34 Arkansas men’s tennis team (14-5, 3-2) earned its second top-25 win and third ranked victory this season after upsetting No. 21 Alabama (10-5, 2-4) in a thrilling 4-3 match Saturday afternoon at Billingsley Tennis Center.

The Razorbacks won the back-and-forth affair to collect their third SEC win in five matches, the program’s most conference victories through five matches since 2016.

The Crimson Tide grabbed the early advantage in the match with wins on courts three and two, respectively, to obtain the doubles point. Connor Smillie and Jakub Vrba earned their second ranked victory this spring after a 6-3 win against No. 42 Kriznik/Planinsek in the top spot. Alabama responded with Foster/Jones defeating Brendan Boland and Marino Jakic 6-4 at the No. 3 position. The doubles point came down to court two as Nezar/Zimnokh closed it out for the Crimson Tide after a 7-5 victory over Božo Barun and Benni Emesz to clinch the point.

The Hogs went down 2-0 in the match after Alabama picked up the first singles point on court one as Barun fell to No. 17 Planinsek in straight sets. Arkansas answered with Arthur Bellegy collecting his 10th singles win of the year after a 6-1, 7-6 (7) victory against Foster at the No. 6 position. No. 124 Vrba tied the match following a lengthy first-set win, 7-6 (10), before taking the next set 6-2 over Aguiard on court three to secure his 11th dual singles victory.

The Razorbacks took their first lead of the match with a 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-3 comeback win from No. 82 Lukas Palovic against No. 75 Jones at the No. 2 position. The victory for Palovic marks back-to-back wins over ranked opponents and his 12th singles victory this dual season. The Crimson Tide evened the score yet again after a win on court four as Zimnokh bested Jakic in a three-set clash, 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (2).

The match came down to court five, where Emesz faced off against Matic Kriznik. Emesz took the first-set tiebreak 7-6 (5) while Kriznik fought back to claim the second-set tiebreak 7-6 (0), forcing a winner-take-all third set. In the final set, Emesz and Kriznik nearly battled their way to another tiebreak, as each player held serve before Emesz broke Kriznik to seize a 5-4 lead. Emesz closed out the upset victory with an overhead smash to put away Kriznik 6-4 in the third set, securing the match for the Hogs.

Arkansas hits the road for a pair of SEC contests next week as the Razorbacks face No. 43 South Carolina on Thursday, March 13 before taking on No. 24 Florida on Saturday, March 15.