Men's Tennis Fact Sheet #9

This weekThe No. 53 Hogs leave the SEC for one match, going to Stillwater, Okla. on Wednesday to take on the No. 34 Cowboys of Oklahoma State at 2 p.m. On Friday, the Hogs go east to Lexington, Ky. to meet up with the No. 21 Wildcats at 3 p.m.

Last time outThe Razorbacks opened SEC play at home with a, 6-1, loss to No. 20 Alabama last Friday and fell again on Sunday, this time to No. 26 Auburn, 4-1.

How Cox sees it (the Alabama match)“We won a lot of sets and I was pleased with the way we came back after doubles. We didn’t get it done though and you have to give Alabama credit. Doubles is only one point, but it is 30 percent of the match emotionally especially when you are trying to upset someone.”

How Cox sees it (the Auburn match)“We showed a little heartbeat and we had our chances. We needed to close out some sets and get them into third sets. I thought we looked a lot better than we did Friday, but the doubles hurt us again. We need to get a lot more competitive at doubles.”

Scouting Oklahoma StateNo. 34 Oklahoma State is 5-1 on the season. OSU has had five matches finish at 4-3 this season, and the Cowboys have won four of those matches. Most recently, the Cowboys beat San Diego 4-3 on Monday. Oleksandr Nedovyesov, the No. 5-ranked singles player in the country, leads the Cowboys at No. 1 singles with his 5-1 record. Nedovyesov and Nathan Byrnes are ranked No. 31 and lead the Cowboys at No. 1 doubles.

Nott’s big weekendSophomore Chris Nott had big singles wins at the No. 3 position over Alabama and Auburn last weekend. Nott defeated Alabama’s Billy Mertz on Friday, 6-3, 6-2 and was up a set on Auburn’s Lukas Marsoun, 6-1, 5-6, when the Tigers clinched their match against the Hogs on Sunday. In doubles, Nott and partner Dmitry Lebedev posted their first win over a ranked opponent, beating the No. 27-ranked Saketh Myneni and Mertz of Alabama, 8-7 (6). Nott improves to 8-1 in singles and he and Lebedev are 7-2 this spring in doubles play.

Download: 3.10 Notes 9.pdf