The Wisconsin Badgers men’s tennis team (9-9) fell to the Washington Huskies (13-6) at the Nordstrom Tennis Center on Sunday, ending their last road game of the regular season with a disappointing loss.
Oliver Olsson and Tomas Zlatohlavek faced a formidable force in their opponents. Washington’s Cesar Bouchelaghem and Dzianis Zharyn seemed to have unmatched coordination in every aspect of the game. The Huskies dominated from start to finish, ending the match 6-1.
The Badger duo of Michael Minasyan and Patrik Meszaros fought a hard and close battle to meet their opponents at 5-5 late in their doubles matchup. But a quick two-game Husky comeback by the Huskies seemed to surprise Wisconsin, as the game finished just out of reach for the Badgers, 7-5.
The Huskies had won the best-of-three in the doubles play with this second match.
The afternoon did not play out in Matthew Fullerton’s favor as his opponent took their singles match in his hands with a straight-set victory 6-4, 6-4. The sophomore now finds an undesirable place among the Wisconsin team, as he has the second longest losing streak in singles matches at three games.
The first-place spot for the longest losing streak in singles matches among the Badger ranks belongs to Tomas Zlatohlavek at 12 consecutive matches lost.
Zlatohlavek dominated the first set with excellent serves and breaking points — beating Husky Nedim Suko 6-2. Both of the following sets ended up in late ties at 5-5, but the Badger could not convert from those points in the set, losing both sets two and three 7-5.
Meszaros added to the number of nail-biting finishes between Wisconsin and Washington with one of his own.
His singles match against Washington opponent Dzianis Zharyn could not have ended any closer as they played fantastic rallies till the last second. The first set ended 6-6 as Zharyn took the lead with a 7-5 points finish in the tiebreaker, declaring the final score 7-6.
The Husky yet again outplayed Meszaros in the second set, bringing a close 5-5 tie to 7-5 with a flurry of drop shots.
Sachiv Kumar played the last singles match of the session, continuing his four win streak. A straight set domination saw Kumar beat Husky Rohan Belday 6-4, 6-2.
The Washington Huskies, regardless, took the win against the Badgers with an overall score of 4-1, making this Wisconsin’s seventh Big Ten conference loss.
Minasyan and Aubert had to leave their tight matches unfinished as the overall best-of-seven had already been clinched by the Huskies.
The Badgers look to end on a high with three games at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium back home in Madison. Next up, they look to take on their Midwestern rivals, the Nebraska Cornhuskers, this weekend in hope of jumping to a good start for their home game stretch.
