The Wisconsin men's tennis team suffered its first loss of the conference season in Sunday's opener at the hands of No. 11 Illinois in a heart-wrenching 4-3 decision.
The rivalry came down to the No. 2 and 3 positions, both must-wins for the No. 34 Badgers (0-1 Big Ten, 10-5 overall) who trailed the Illini (2-0 Big Ten, 10-5 overall), 2-3. Senior No. 13 Moritz Baumann faltered first, unable to recover from a shaky second set tiebreak.
Illinois' No. 64 senior Marek Czerwinski broke the Badgers in the first game of the third set and maintained control until the final result, wrestling away another break of serve to win 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-3. At No. 3, sophomore No. 116 Patrick Pohlmann played on and pulled through his third-set tiebreak.
""It was really intense, I really wanted to win, and yeah, I showed my emotions,"" Pohlmann said. ""In the tiebreak it's almost like a lottery, so you just have to go from point to point. In the end, I was the more lucky guy.""
But Pohlmann's 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(5) closing was too little, too late for the Badgers, who lost the match and any dreams of an opening upset 3-4, a bitter result for the program.
""I was really disappointed we didn't close out matches,"" head coach Greg Van Emburgh said. ""Hats off to [Illinois]. They played a good match, and they found ways to dig a little deeper today in third sets and get the wins.""
And it was third-set opportunities that seemed to make all the difference in singles play. The Badgers earned a promising four first sets over Illini opponents, but only No. 25 junior Marek Michalicka was able to follow that with a second-set win. He took advantage of both of his break opportunities to roll through his first, 6-2, but was less efficient in his second, passing up two match points before sealing the deal, 7-5.
""I missed the return. I felt like it was a pretty easy ball for me,"" Michalicka said about watching his second chance to close whiz by. ""That's how it is. You win a point, you lose a point, and you just always find a way to come back.""
Illinois cleaned up on the back three positions, forcing the match on Baumann and Pohlmann's shoulders, a difficult position from which to play or to watch.
""When I watched Patrick or Moritz, I was so nervous,"" Michalicka said. ""I was more nervous than if I had played the match.""
Despite the fight from both sides, Pohlmann was the only Badger to come out of his three-set singles marathon on top.
""It was pretty unlucky that we lost three out of our four, three-set matches,"" he said. ""In tennis it's all about confidence, so we've got to close up the matches by showing more confidence.""
The confidence was there for the Badgers before singles play, however, starting the day with doubles wins at No. 2 and then No. 1, where Van Emburgh resurrected the once No. 3 tandem of Baumann and Michalicka. The aggressive pair earned 10 break opportunities against the No. 68 pair of Czerwinski and freshman Stephen Hoh. Despite only converting on two, it was enough to down the Illini 8-4 and edge out the early lead.
The final loss was devastating, but the conference is far from decided and the Badgers are ready to get back in the mix.
""You have to make sure that you do everything right, the right way, and get us ready for the Indiana match,"" Michalicka said.
""We can learn a lot form this match today. It shouldn't happen against Indiana,"" Pohlmann said. ""Just go match by match.""
