Men’s Tennis Wins at No. 19 Ole Miss, 4-1

Sunday, February 21

Oxford, Miss

1:00 p.m.

University of Memphis

#19 Ole Miss

Feb 21, 2016 | Men's Tennis

Tigers upend Rebels on the road for first top 20 win of season.

By: Tammy DeGroff

OXFORD, Miss. – Freshman Chris Patzanovsky served a ball right down the middle and watched the return hit the net, sealing a 4-1 win for the Memphis men's tennis team (6-2) over No. 19 ranked Ole Miss (4-2), Sunday, at the Gillom Sports Center.

Memphis started off trying to get doubles going in front of a vocal home team. While the fans focused on the matches and one and two doubles, where Ole Miss had jumped out to quick leads, the Tigers were off to a comfortable lead at three doubles. The Rebels took a 6-3 win at one doubles and could be forgiven for thinking the doubles point was not coming far behind, as Ole Miss led 4-0 at two doubles, then 5-2. But while the Tigers were digging back from the 4-0 hole at two, the team of Andrew Watson and Shakeel Manji picked up a 6-3 win at three, putting the fate of the doubles point in the hands of Ryan Peniston and Felix Rauch. The duo kept working back, eventually ending up in a tiebreaker at 6-all and winning the breaker, 7-4, pushing Memphis ahead 1-0.

With the momentum shifted over to the visiting team side of the net, Memphis got off to quick starts and two and three singles. Peniston put another Tiger point on the books with a quick 6-4, 6-0 win at two, which brought Patzanovsky's match at number four singles on to the indoor courts. With just three indoor courts available, Patzanovsky was working early in his first set when Andrew Watson battled back in the second set at number one singles, working his way to a tiebreak. While Watson was in his breaker, Kai Lemke closed out what had been a crowd-drawing match at three singles, winning 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 to put the Tigers up 3-0.

Ole Miss answered back with a win at number one to make it 3-1 about the same time Patzanovsky closed out his first set win, 6-3. As Shakeel Manji and Felix Rauch stepped on the court to start their respective matches at five and six, Patzanovsky fended off a comeback attempt from Ricardo Jorge, acing Jorge on deuce and set point for the 4-1 Tiger win.

The win is the first top 25 win of the season for Memphis and gives them four wins over top 37 ranked opponents already this season just eight matches in.

The Tigers continue a tough stretch of matches with road contests at No. 53 SMU, Thursday, at No. 13 Baylor Saturday and at No. 8 Oklahoma, next Monday.

No. 28 Memphis 4, No. 19 Ole Miss 1
Doubles
No. 1 – Filip Kraljevic/Zvonimir Babic def. Kai Lemke/Louis Asser (Memphis), 6-3
No. 2 – Ryan Peniston/Felix Rauch (Memphis) def. Fabian Fallert/Grey Hamilton, 7-6 (4)
No. 3 – Andrew Watson/Shakeel Manji (Memphis) def. Stefan Lindmark/Ricardo Jorge, 6-3
Doubles: 1, 3, 2
Singles
No. 1 -- #86 Stefan Lindmark def. #87 Andrew Watson (Memphis), 6-3, 7-6 (8)
No. 2 -- #46 Ryan Peniston (Memphis) def. Filip Kraljevic, 6-4, 6-0
No. 3 – Kai Lemke (Memphis) def. Gustav Hansson, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2
No. 4 – Chris Patzanovsky (Memphis) def. Ricardo Jorge, 6-3, 6-4
No. 5 –Shakeel Manji (Memphis) vs. Fabian Fallert, 4-4, uf
No. 6 –Felix Rauch (Memphis) vs Vinod Gowda, 6-3, 1-1, uf
Order of Finish: 2, 3, 1, 4