The Bulls take the doubles point and four singles matches against Big Ten foe
TAMPA (March 16, 2022) – The University of South Florida men’s tennis team (7-6) took home four singles matches and a pair of doubles matches Wednesday afternoon at the USF Varsity Tennis Courts, posting a convincing 5-2 victory over Big Ten foe Indiana (5-7).
Head Coach Ashley Fisher was very impressed with his team’s effort. “We had to dig deep in the doubles (all of which went to a tiebreak) and find ways to win sets, and then we were very deciding in singles,” said Fisher. “Ivan continued to play well, Alvin and Serge have both had a great first half of the season and continued that today. Everyone else is working hard and staying committed to the process.”
In doubles play, all three courts came down to tiebreakers, with USF taking Court 3 and Indiana taking Court 2. The point came down to Court 1 where Rithvik Bollipalli (Hyderabad, India) and Bruno Oliveira (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) won their tiebreaker 7-1 to claim the point.
The Bulls had a strong start in singles, taking the first set in five of six courts. The momentum carried to the finish, with USF winning four out of the six singles matches.
USF’s Alvin Tudorica (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) gave the Bulls their first singles point of the day, winning convincingly, 6-2 and 6-3, against Indiana’s Ilya Tiraspolsky on Court 5.
Sergio Gomez-Montesa (Valencia, Spain) followed up the point by winning Court 4 for the Bulls, posting a pair of dominating 6-1 scores in both of his sets against Indiana’s Vikash Singh.
On Court 1, Ivan Yatsuk (Minsk, Belarus) took down Indiana’s Carson Haskins 6-2 in the first set and followed it up with a hard fought 7-5 win in the second set to seal the team score for South Florida.
Antonio Muniz-Hidalgo (Barcelona, Spain) added a fifth point for the Bulls on Court 3, winning his two sets 7-6 (7-6) and 6-3 against Luka Vukovic.
Indiana’s Michael Andre defeated USF’s Oliveira (6-4, 6-4) on Court 6 to avoid the shutout, while Patrick Fletchall secured a second point for Indiana, coming from behind to defeat USF’s Chase Ferguson (Melbourne, Australia) on Court 2 (3-6, 6-4, 10-6).
RESULTS
Doubles:
Bollipalli/Oliveira (USF) def. Haskins/Singh (IU) 7-6 (7-1)
Tiraspolsky/Fletchall (IU) def. Ferguson/Goncalves (USF) 6-7 (7-4)
Gomez-Montesa/Tudorica (USF) def. Vukovic/Andre (IU) 7-6 (7-2)
Order of finish: (3,2,1)
Singles:
Ivan Yatsuk (USF) def. Carson Haskins (IU) 6-2, 7-5
Patrick Fletchall (IU) def. Chase Ferguson (USF) 3-6, 6-4, 10-7
Antonio Muniz-Hidalgo (USF) def. Luka Vukovic (IU) 7-6 (7-6), 6-3
Sergio Gomez-Montesa (USF) def. Vikash Singh (IU) 6-1, 6-1
Alvin Tudorica (USF) def. Ilya Tiraspolsky (IU) 6-2, 6-3
Michael Andre (IU) def. Bruno Oliveira (USF) 6-4, 6-4
Order of finish: (5,4,1,6,2,3)
Up Next
The Bulls are back in action tomorrow at noon to take on Columbia at the USF Varsity Tennis Courts. The match will be streamed live on ESPN+.
About Men’s Tennis
Be sure to follow USF men’s tennis on social media (Twitter / Facebook / Instagram) and visit GoUSFBulls.com for the most up-to-date information. Head coach Ashley Fisher will begin his sixth year at the helm of the program for the 2021-22 season.
– #GoBulls –
