NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Vanderbilt’s 28th-ranked men’s tennis team had its three-match win streak come to an end on Sunday as No. 38 Louisville defeated the Commodores, 4-3.
Vanderbilt (4-3) took the doubles point and the first completed singles match to build a 2-0 lead. However, Louisville (10-1), won four of the final five singles matches to win the overall match. The Cardinals were able to prevail in both singles matches that went three sets.
With Vanderbilt trailing 3-2 in the match, the Commodores’ Alex Zotov was able to tie the score at three with a, 6-3, 6-4, win in the No. 6 position.
Minutes after Zotov tied the match, Louisville was able to clinch the decisive point when Viktor Maksimcuk defeated Vanderbilt’s Bryant Salcedo, 6-2, 4-6,6-3, in the No. 2 position.
For the third straight match and for the fifth time this season, Vanderbilt was able to build a 1-0 lead in the match by winning the doubles point. The Commodores posted wins in the first two completed matches and were within a tiebreak of sweeping all three matches.
Picking up Vanderbilt’s first win in doubles play was the duo of Alex DiValerio and Charlie Jones. The freshmen made quick work of Louisville’s team of Sumit-Prakash Gupta and Viktor Maksimcuk , 8-1, in the No. 3 position. The win was their third in a row as they moved their record to 4-2 this season.
Vanderbilt’s duo of Nick Cromydas and Bryant Salcedo clinched the doubles point for the second match in a row, defeating Louisville’s 33rd-ranked team of Robert Rotaru and Alejandro Calligari, 8-5, in the No. 2 position. The win was the duo’s first over a ranked opponent.
The No. 1 doubles match pitted two ranked opponents — No. 25 Alex Zotov and Adam Baker of Vanderbilt and No. 6 Simon and Austen Childs of Louisville. Zotov and Baker were able to take a 3-1 lead early before Louisville rallied to even the score at three. Neither team could separate from that point forward. With the doubles point already decided, the match was decided in a 10-point tiebreaker, which the Louisville duo took, 10-8, to win the match 8-7.
In singles competition, Vanderbilt jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the match following a win by Vijay Paul in the No. 3 position. Paul earned a 6-3, 6-1 win over Louisville’s Simon Childs. The win moved Paul to 4-3 in dual play.
Vanderbilt’s comfortable advantage didn’t last long. Louisville won the next three singles matches to take a 3-2 lead in the match.
Louisville crawled back within one, 2-1, after Vanderbilt’s Adam Baker had his four-match win streak snapped by Louisville’s Alejandro Calligari. Calligari defeated Baker, 6-3, 6-4, in the No. 4 position.
The Cardinals tied the score at two when Robert Rotaru gave Vanderbilt’s Charlie Jones his first loss in the No. 5 position this season. After Jones won the first set, 6-2, Rotaru came back and won the final two sets, 6-2, 6-3.
Louisville then took the lead after Vanderbilt’s Nick Cromydas fell to No. 46 Austen Childs, 6-3, 6-2, in the No. 1 position.
Zotov would even the match at three with his win in the No. 6 position before Louisville won the decisive match in the No. 2 position.
Next up, the Commodores will hit the road for the second time this season when they travel to Tulsa to face Oklahoma State on Feb. 28 and Tulsa on March 1. The matches will be the first of five straight on the road.
