The Wisconsin Badgers men’s tennis team hosted the Indiana Hoosiers at Nielsen Tennis Stadium at home on March 28 after two games on the road. The Badgers seemed to pick up momentum after their nail-biting win over the Penn State Nittany Lions, but they unfortunately could not convert against the Hoosiers as a team.
Badgers shine in their doubles matches
Wisconsin freshman Patrik Meszaros and junior Michael Minasyan gained the early lead 3-0 in the set with calculated drop and lob shots, and making their opponents run sideline-to-sideline, faltering to return the ball.
But a powerful comeback filled with forced errors from the Hoosiers side seemed to surprise the Badgers, as they cut the lead to just 5-3. After a string of calls challenged by Indiana, Wisconsin managed to prosper 6-3 in the end.
The Wisconsin duo of Matthew Fullerton and Edouard Aubert did not waste any time in dominating their side of the net. Fighting to win three break points in a row, the Badgers almost swept their opponent to gain the doubles point.
A valiant effort by the remaining doubles match of the evening featuring Wisconsin’s sophomore duo Oliver Olsson and Tomas Zlatohlavek saw the match tied 3-3 at the halfway point.
But the Badgers constantly hit the ball at the net and out-of-bounds. There were also moments where there appeared to be a lack of coordination between the two teammates, and they threw their match away 6-3 to Indiana.
Wisconsin falls apart in singles matches
The singles matches is where the Badgers seemed to falter as a team in the matchup against the Hoosiers.
Meszaros faced a fierce rival in his singles match but prevailed over him. Being the only Badger to win a singles match in the fight against Indiana, he led Wisconsin to a 2-0 team lead overall.
Although his opponent Ben Pomeranets seemed to gain rhythm into the match, Meszaros didn’t back down and fought until he won 12 games. The Badger secured the straight set victory 6-4, 6-2.
Minasyan gave away crucial points in the first set by blind returns to his rival Jip Van Assendelft, handing the first set away 6-2 to the Hoosier. The Badger appeared to find his groove in the second set as he left no room for previous errors, making a statement 6-1 second set comeback to keep himself in contention for his singles point.
Despite his strong attack, Minasyan only managed to win four games compared to Assendelft’s six, finalizing the third set 6-4.
Aubert faced only his third loss of the season so far, losing his first set 6-2.
The second set seemed to be going his way, but his excellent serves were not enough to close it out as he lost the second set 7-5 to his opponent.
Both Badgers Fullerton and Zlatohlavek appeared to have close-cut matchups against Indiana but failed to convert their matches into points for Wisconsin tennis.
Both these losses for the Badgers meant crucial singles points for the Hoosiers’ tennis team as they won four singles matches in a row to comeback and win 4-2 from 2-0 against the Wisconsin Badgers.
Fullerton’s loss gave away the 4th point in the best of 7 to Indiana, declaring Wisconsin freshman Sachiv Kumar’s game unfinished at 7-5, 3-3.
Fullerton, now with more losses than wins, finds himself in the penultimate position for team members with the lowest win rate in Wisconsin tennis this season at 6-7.
Zlatohlavek’s streak of underperformances continues as the Badger is stuck in last place in terms of win rate at 3-11 so far.
