NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Entering its match against undefeated Purdue, Vanderbilt’s 48th-ranked men’s tennis team was 5-0 on the season when it had won the doubles point. Sunday, Vanderbilt again won the doubles point en route to cruising to 7-0 victory over the Boilermakers at the Currey Tennis Center.
With the win, Vanderbilt moved to 6-2 on the season and 4-0 at home, while Purdue dropped to 6-1 on the season after playing its first road match of the year. Vanderbilt has now won three straight matches, while all six of team’s wins have either been by scores of 6-1 or 7-0.
“I am happy with how the guys played,” Head Coach Ian Duvenhage said. “It was a good weekend for us. We talked last week about this being an important homestand for us.
“I’ve always left the goals up to the team and I know they’ve got lofty goals. We knew that with the goals they have, this was an important weekend. We needed to take care of business and we did.”
For the second straight match, Vanderbilt swept all three doubles matches to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
However, unlike Friday when Vanderbilt looked destined to lose the doubles point, the Commodores were never down a break in any of the three doubles matches on Sunday.
The first doubles team to get a victory was the duo of Charlie Jones and Ryan Lipman, who downed Purdue’s team of Slavko Bijelica and Thomas Wilson, 8-6, in the No. 2 position.
Clinching the doubles point for the Commodores were Adam Baker and Alex Zotov, who topped Purdue’s tandem of Eric Ramos and P.J. Rose, 8-6, in the No. 1 position. Baker and Zotov were knotted at three when they broke Purdue’s serve to take control of the match.
Earning the sweep for Vanderbilt was its No. 3 duo of Vijay Paul and Bryant Salcedo, who are ranked No. 57. Paul and Salcedo built a 7-3 lead in its match against Paul Foley and Matt Mannasse before holding on for an 8-6 win. Paul and Salcedo are now 6-0 in dual play.
In singles play, Adam Baker improved to 6-0 in dual play when he cruised to a 6-2, 6-2, victory in the No. 5 position over Purdue’s Paul Foley to give Vanderbilt a 2-0 lead in the match.
Vanderbilt extended its lead to 3-0 when Charlie Jones knocked off Eric Ramos in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5), in the No. 4 position. Jones trailed 2-4 in the set and was down 3-5 in the tiebreaker before winning the final four points. Jones is now 4-2 in dual play this spring.
Clinching the match for Vanderbilt was Bryant Salcedo who rallied from a 5-2 deficit in the first set to post a 7-5, 6-2 victory in the No. 3 position. Salcedo is now 7-1 in dual play this season.
Giving Vanderbilt its fifth point of the match was Vijay Paul, who ended a four-match losing skid by topping Purdue’s Branko Kuzmanovic, 6-3, 6-4, in the No. 2 position.
Vanderbilt’s Ryan Lipman gave the Commodores their sixth point of the match when he knocked of Slavko Bijelica, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, in the NO. 1 position. Lipman is now 5-2 at the No. 1 slot this spring.
Vanderbilt completed the 7-0 sweep when Alex DiValerio defeated Thomas Wilson, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3, in the No. 6 position.
After taking next week off, Vanderbilt will return to the courts on Feb. 19 at Louisville.
According to Duvenhage, the week off couldn’t come at a better time after a stretch of playing four straight weekends.
“We’ve gotten this far with nagging injuries and quite frankly I’m happy that we’ve been able to keep the guys with nagging injuries on the court playing,” Duvenhage said. “I was afraid that maybe some of them weren’t going to be able to play all the time, and they have been. I’m probably going to give them a couple of days off and then we are going to hit it hard beginning Wednesday and get ready for Louisville.”
