Box Score INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – In the finals of the UTR Sports College Championships at the BNP Paribas Open, No. 14 Baylor men's tennis left the Indian Wells Tennis Garden with a heartbreaker, falling to No. 45 Arizona State 4-3 in a near comeback loss.
The Bears took the Sun Devils toe-to-toe in a nearly five hour match but fell just short in a third set all-or-nothing situation.
THE RUNDOWN
Baylor (13-7) started out in doubles with No. 79 duo of
Devin Badenhorst and
Luc Koenig taking Court Two 6-3. However, Arizona State (9-6) pushed back, forcing tiebreakers on both Courts One and Three. The Sun Devils came out on top in the doubles ultimately, taking both courts with the score of 7-6 (7-5) and getting the early advantage.
The Bears responded in singles, with Koenig getting an early advantage and going up 3-0 in the first. The South African junior went on to win the first set 6-1 on Court Five, alongside
Alexandru Chirita who won his first set on Court Five 6-3.
While all the other Bears commenced into their second set,
Marko Miladinovic played slow and steady on Court Six, winning his first set in a fierce tiebreaker 7-6(7). Miladinovic's pace came into play as by the time he was midway through the second, Arizona State and Baylor had put points on the board.
Chirita was the first with a 6-3, 6-4 victory and Koenig was right behind with a 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 responding win. Badenhorst and
Zsombor Velcz fell, resulting in the match being tight at 3-2.
After falling in the first set, Velcz came back in the second set to force the match into a third. The No. 99 ranked junior came up big, winning 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, tying the match 3-3.
It all came down to Court Six with Miladinovic, who fell in the second set 4-6. With a winner-take-all third set on the line, Miladinovic went up early 4-2. However, ASU's Ginat responded going on a four game winning streak, taking the match 7-6(7), 4-6, 6-4.
FROM HEAD COACH MICHAEL WOODSON
"Another great college tennis match. I think it was four hours and fourty-five minutes. Unfortunately, this one didn't go our way. They can't all go our way. Credit to Arizona State, they battled hard today. I thought we had some opportunities in the doubles that we weren't able to convert on. They played two good tiebreakers to sneak the doubles point. When you're down 1-0, it gets pretty hard. They got on top of us on a few courts. We really weren't able to get going on One and Two, which was tough. Credit to Zsombor for turning his match around and to Luc and Alex on getting on top of their guys early. Marko's was a consistent battle throughout the entire match. Obviously, it came down to him and his opponent played very within himself throughout the match. Marko had some opportunities in the second and third set. He had some leads, just wasn't able to win a couple of key points, so they were able to sneak it out. Credit to Arizona State. They had a great weekend. It was a fantastic tournament at Indian Wells. We were fortunate to be a part of it. Bummed it didn't go our way, but excited to get back to Waco and start the conference season with a rematch on the Sun Devils."
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor will have a rematch with Arizona State in its first conference match of the season on Friday, March 21 at 6:00 pm CT at the Hurd Tennis Center.
