By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
WACO, Texas – Getting "back to myself a little bit more," Baylor senior Oskar Brostrom Poulsen bounced back from a second-set loss to defeat Arizona State's Matic Dimic, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, and clinch the third-seeded and 16^th-ranked Bears' 4-0 sweep of the sixth-seeded Wildcats in Friday's quarterfinal of the Big 12 Championship.
 
"I think the main difference was that I kind of to myself a little bit more," Brostrom Poulsen said."It's windy out here, so it got away from me in the second set on a couple of deuce points. But I stuck in there and just turned it around. And it helped that the other guys were winning, too. It took some of the pressure off myself."
 
After waiting through the Baylor women's marathon match – a 4-3 win over Arizona – the BU men (22-9) took just 2 ½ hours to finish off the Sun Devils in a 4-0 sweep for the second time in three meetings this season.
 
"It makes a huge difference," said Baylor coach Michael Woodson, whose team advances to face second-seeded and 11^th-ranked Arizona (22-4) in Saturday's 1 p.m. semifinal at the Hurd Tennis Center. "We've played a four-hour and 45-minute match with this team and didn't win it (4-3 loss In Indian Springs, California). So, anything better than that is a success."
 
Baylor was able to "break the spirit" of the Sun Devils when the Bears got out to big leads at Nos. 2 and 3 doubles. After Zsombor Velcz and Alexandru Chirita dominated Dimic and Mathis Bondaz, 6-1, at No. 3, the Bears got the first point on the board when the 27^th-ranked duo of Brostrom Poulsen and Marko Mladinovic defeated Bor Artnak and Daniel Phillips, 6-3, at No. 1.
 
"The doubles point is so important," Brostrom Poulsen said. "It's really a make or break for the dual match, like how the energy is going to be from your team, from the opposing team. So, getting the doubles point today was crucial. I think the main point about that was we brought the energy into the singles.


Yes, they did, winning all six first sets to take control of the match.
 
ASU (12-11) did manage to take two matches to third sets and was on the verge of doing the same at No. 4 singles, but the Bears went up 3-0 with straight-set wins by Luk Koenig and Devin Badenhorst at Nos. 6 and 1, respectively. The 37^th-ranked Badenhorst dominated a second-set tiebreaker against the 36^th-ranked Artnak, 6-4, 7-6(2).
 
"It's not easy. Sometimes, you go up against some guys that are (ranked) 300 in the world," Brostrom Poulsen said of Badenhorst taking on the challenge of the No. 1 spot. "That's just what college tennis is. But that's the great thing about it, because Dev is right there. He's young, he's a sophomore, so the future is bright for him. But the fact that he's able to win now just makes me happy since it's my last year. It's incredible what he's doing."
 
Going up 3-0 with Badenhorst's win, Baylor was leading on every court. But Velcz split sets with Bondaz at No. 2, Chirita was tied at 5-5 with Tanner Povey at No. 4 after winning the first set 7-5, and Louis Bowden was up 7-5, 3-2 over Roi Ginat at No. 5.
 
Brostrom Poulsen won the race to the finish line, breezing through the third set with Dimic to nail down the fourth point of the match.
 
"I think he had a little bit of a lapse in focus, lost a tough deuce point on his serve," Woodson said, "and the second set got away from him a little bit. But like he's done so many times this year, in the third set, he just really dials it in on his own serve. And when he gets some quick holds, it applies so much pressure to his opponent. And he's so stingy on return games, that eventually guys give it to him. We've seen this a few times, where he just runs away with the third. So, heck of an effort."
 
Baylor faces an Arizona team that handed the Bears a 4-1 loss last month at the Hurd Center, winning the doubles point on a tiebreaker at No. 2 and taking three of the singles matches in straight sets.
 
"I think there's a lot of revenge to be won in that match," Brostrom Poulsen said. "Just getting this one out of the way first is good. We took care of business, and now we're able to focus 100% on Arizona, which is a match that everyone on the team wants to absolutely go out there and just outshine Arizona."



WACO, Texas – No. 16 Baylor men's tennis advance to the semifinals of the Big 12 Championship with a win over No. 40 Arizona State at, 4-0, its twelfth sweep of the season.
 
The Bears (22-9, 6-1 Big 12) won the doubles point and garnered wins on Courts Six, One and Three to earn their second victory against the Sun Devils this season.
 
THE RUNDOWN
Staring off in doubles, the Bears were off quickly with a dominant 6-1 victory on Court Three by Zsombor Velcz and Alexandru Chirita. In a ranked contest on Court One, the 27^th-ranked duo of Oskar Brostrom Poulsen and Marko Miladinovic took down the No. 37 pair of Bor Artnak and Daniel Philips, 6-3, to earn the doubles point for BU.
 
Unfinished on Court Two, the South African duo of Devin Badenhorst and Luc Koenig were up 5-3 before the match was abandoned.
 
Moving into singles with the early advantage, Koenig earned a 6-3, 6-3 victory on Court Six to extend Baylor's lead to 2-0.
 
On Court One, No. 37 Badenhorst picked up the first set at 6-4. In a back-and-forth second set, Badenhorst won the tiebreak at 7-6 (2) to earn a ranked win against No. 36 Artnak to move the Bears to a 3-0 lead.
 
Brostrom Poulsen made quick work in the first set with a 6-2 dub before falling in the second set 6-3. In the third set, Brostrom Poulsen dominated in a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 victory to clinch the win for BU at 4-0 and advance to Day Three of the tournament.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor goes up against No. 11 Arizona in the semifinals of the Big 12 Championship Saturday at 1 p.m.