Men’s Tennis Falls 4-3 to Cornell in NCAA Opening Round

The Arkansas men’s tennis team played a close match with Cornell in the NCAA Tournament first round on Friday, but the Razorbacks (16-15) ultimately fell 4-3 to the Big Red (19-3).

The No. 38 Razorbacks had a strong start and claimed the doubles point with victories from Connor Smillie and Jakub Vrba and Brendan Boland and Dmitry Kopilevich. Smillie and Vrba won in dominant fashion, 6-3, over Rushil Khosla and Rethin Kumar in their first doubles match since April 10. Boland and Kopilevich defeated            Felipe Pinzon and Petar Teodorovic 7(7)-6(4).

Singles was close and Kumar tied the score at 1-1 with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Gabriel Elicha Navas on court four. Lukas Palovic and Boland then put the Hogs ahead 3-1 with singles wins. Palovic defeated Eric Verdes 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 on court two and Boland took down Aman Sharma in a 7-5, 7(7)-6(4) back-and-forth battle on court six.

Cornell grabbed the next two points: Pinzon defeated Arsene Pougault 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 on court five and Rodrigo Fernades took down Vrba 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 on court one. It all came down to Ben Weintraub and Teodorovic on three. Weintraub did fight back in the second set, but ultimately lost 4-6, 7-5, 1-6.

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