Baylor
NCAA Singles R16
Men's Tennis: Lukacs' Run Ends At NCAAs
5/28/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
May 28, 2010
ATHENS, Ga. - After two straight wins at the NCAA Singles Championship, Baylor senior Denes Lukacs was eliminated from the tournament in the round of 16 with a 6-4, 6-4 loss to 19th-ranked Austen Childs of Louisville on Friday afternoon at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.
The loss completes the senior campaign of Lukacs and drops his season record to 25-8. He finishes his career with a 5-3 mark in NCAA Singles Championship play, after reaching the quarterfinals in 2008 and losing in the first round in 2009.
"The opponent played more of a defensive style," head coach Matt Knoll said. "Denes did not do a great job of executing when he understood what the game plan needed to be and things just kind of got away from him, but Childs played well."
Lukacs had gotten the better of Childs, 6-3, 6-2, earlier in the year when Baylor met Louisville on Feb. 13 in the National Team Indoor Championship in Charlottesville, Va.
The loss ends Lukacs' Baylor career with an all-time singles record of 135-36, a .789 winning percentage, 89 career dual match wins and a 22-2 mark in Big 12 Conference play. The 135 wins leave him in second place on BU's all-time wins list trailing Benjamin Becker's 141 wins. The winning percentage is fourth on Baylor's career list, while the dual match wins are third and the conference wins are seventh.
"Denes had an incredible career," Knoll said. "He started off playing six for us and now finishes as a three-time All-American. He did a lot of fantastic things for the program. He will be a guy that will be missed and he will be hard to replace."
During his time at Baylor, the program was 103-28 overall and 21-3 in conference play. Lukacs helped Baylor win three conference regular season titles, three Big 12 Championship titles and make one NCAA Championship semifinal appearance and three quarterfinals appearances.
Lukacs has earned All-American status in singles three times during his Baylor career, which places him among former Baylor standouts Lars Poerschke, Becker and Benedikt Dorsch as the only Bears to earn ITA All-America honors in singles three times.
Lukacs is also a four-time All-Big 12 singles honoree, joining Johann Jooste, Becker and Poerschke as the only Bears to be named all-conference each of their four years at Baylor.
He also has the second most singles wins for a single season at Baylor with 47 in 2007-08 and is tied for third and seventh for the most dual match singles wins in a single season with 25 in 2007 and 24 in 2008.
For his career Lukacs was ranked as high as No. 2 in the ITA singles rankings on Sept. 4, 2008.
NCAA Singles Round of 16
May 28, 2010
#19 Austen Childs (UL) def. #15 Denes Lukacs (BU) 6-4, 6-4
Players Mentioned
