Vrba Grabs Singles Win as Hogs Fall to No. 50 Vanderbilt, 4-1

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The No. 41 Arkansas men’s tennis team (16-12, 4-9) dropped its road match to No. 50 Vanderbilt (11-13, 3-10), falling 4-1 Thursday afternoon at Lummis Tennis Center.

The Commodores obtained the early advantage with a victory in the top spot as No. 40 Cox/Ross defeated No. 19 Connor Smillie and Jakub Vrba, 6-4. Vanderbilt claimed the doubles point after a narrow 7-6 (4) win from Charlap/Ruger over Božo Barun and Benni Emesz at the No. 3 position. Brendan Boland and Lukas Palovic’s match on court two went unfinished with the Commodore duo of Gomez/Panarin leading 5-4.

Vanderbilt carried its momentum into singles play, taking the first set on five courts. In the top spot, Panarin secured a straight-set victory against No. 48 Palovic, while Vrba earned the only point of the match for the Razorbacks after a 6-2, 6-3 win over Cox at the No. 3 position. Emesz fell 6-7 (3), 4-6 in his match against Ross on court four as the Commodores clinched the match at the No. 5 position with Ruger besting Arthur Bellegy in straight sets.

On court two, Barun fought back to force a third set versus Martinez Gomez and led 3-2 in the final set before his match went unfinished. Jean-Baptiste Badon fell 0-6 in the first set to Coquelin at the No. 6 position and trailed 1-3 in the second set as his match concluded.

The Hogs will play their final two regular season matches on Saturday, April 12 against No. 36 Kentucky in Lexington at 12 p.m. CT and Xavier at 7 p.m. CT in Cincinnati.