No. 41 Men's Tennis Wins Back-and-Forth Thriller Over No. 37 LSU, 4-3

BATON ROUGE, La. – The No. 41 Arkansas men’s tennis team (16-9, 3-6) earned its second consecutive ranked win after a thrilling 4-3 victory over No. 37 LSU (11-10, 1-9) on Friday evening at LSU Tennis Complex.

The Tigers took the early advantage in doubles play with a win on court one, as Latinovic/Stoupe defeated No. 34 Božo Barun/Jared Horwood, 6-4. LSU claimed the doubles point after a victory from Dong/Penzlin over Connor Smillie/Jake Sweeney at the No. 2 position. Melvin Manuel/Alan Sau Franco’s match went unfinished with the score tied 6-6 (1-1).

The Razorbacks struck first in singles play with Barun besting Latinovic, 7-6 (5), 6-3, in the top spot, while Manuel fell in three sets to Lofman on court three, giving the Tigers a 2-1 lead in the match. The Hogs answered with a win at the No. 2 position, as Planelles Ripoll defeated Stoupe, 7-6 (4), 6-2.

Arkansas took its first lead of the match following a 7-6 (7), 6-3 victory from Benedikt Emesz against Penzlin on court five. LSU evened the score yet again after a win at the No. 6 position, as Dong bested Karlo Kajin, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

The match came down to court four, where Stefanos Savva faced off against Rudy Ceccon. Savva took the first set 6-3 while Ceccon fought back to win the second set 7-6 (8), forcing a winner-take-all third set. In the final set, Savva and Ceccon battled their way to a tiebreak, in which Savva saved multiple match points en route to a 7-6 (9) victory in the third set to secure the match for the Razorbacks.

The Hogs are back in action on Sunday, April 7, at 1 p.m. to face No. 8 Texas A&M.