Hogs strong at All-American and S.C. Invite

TULSA, Okla. – Hogs Chris Nott and Dmitry Lebedev found success again on Saturday at the D’Novo All-American pre-qualifying tournament, winning two matches apiece.

Lebedev followed his win on Friday with wins over Yale’s Jeff Dawson, 7-6(4), 6-2 and Alex Cornelissen of Orgeon, 6-1, 6-4 to advance to Sunday’s final pre-qualifying round. Nott, who had a bye on Friday, rolled over Johan Beigart from Central Florida, 6-1, 6-2 before eliminating Oregon’s Marco Verdasco in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2.

“It was a stellar day for Lebedev and Nott, both moving on to the final round at pre-qualifying. I’m proud of the way they played and hope to see more hard play tomorrow,” said Razorbacks coach Robert Cox.

At the South Carolina Invitational, Arkansas took three singles matches from North Carolina during the second day of play. Tariq Ismail won his first match at Arkansas, defeating Taylor Meyer 6-3, 6-4 and Tyler Tarnasky beat Andrew Crowe 6-4, 6-4. Nick Spinazze fought Cameron Ahari in a three set match, earning the win 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Razorbacks Bradwin Williams, Taylor King, Matt Walters, and Connor Smith also played singles matches against North Carolina on Saturday.

“I was really very pleased with the way Tariq played in his match today, winning his first as a Razorback,” Cox said. “We played better today than we did Friday, and we need to continue to improve as we play Sunday.”

On the doubles courts, the Arkansas team of Walters and Smith won both their scheduled matches, taking down North Carolina’s Luke Mojica and Alex Rafiee 9-7 in a tough morning match before battling Lousiville’s Adam Donaldson and Tim Barnoud in a 9-8(6) win. Teammates Tarnasky and Spinazze were victorious in the afternoon as well, taking a win from Viktor Maksimcuk and Sumit-Prakash Gupta 8-4 after dropping their morning match to Cameron Ahari and Zach Hunter of North Carolina, 8-2. The Razorbacks third doubles team, King and Williams were also in action on Saturday against North Carolina and Louisville.

“We’re really improving in our doubles play. We’re playing very inspired doubles every time out on the court and it’s starting to show in our results,” said Cox.

On Sunday at the All-American, Nott will play Ignacio Taboada of
Miami
while fellow Hog Lebedev looks to win his fourth straight match, going up against
Oklahoma
’s Ionut Beleleu. At the South Carolina Invitational,
Arkansas
will finish the weekend taking on
Louisville
in singles. For complete men’s tennis coverage, log on to www.ArkansasRazorbacks.com.