The Wisconsin Badgers men’s tennis team lost 4-0 to the Ohio State Buckeyes on the road at Ty Tucker Tennis Center in Columbus, Ohio, on March 21.
In their 13th game overall and fifth Big Ten matchup of the season, the Badgers stand at a 9-9 win-loss ratio, and if not for the Spartans’ disciplinary violation in the previous game, this loss would have been their fifth straight.
The first of the doubles matches saw the sophomore duo Oliver Olsson from Germany and Tomas Zlatohlavek from the Czech Republic lose 6-1 in a completely one-sided affair. Aces, broken serves and untouchable returns haunted the Wisconsin side as the Buckeyes rose to victory.
Wisconsin freshman Patrik Meszaros and junior Michael Minasyan seemed to face a similar fate as their OSU opposition did not take any rally for granted. A lack of focused coordination and control over each point compared to the Buckeyes led a usually winning duo to a crushing defeat, 6-2.
Although winning these two doubles matches was enough for Ohio State to clinch that doubles point, it seemed they were on track to win all three matches.
The Badger duo of Matthew Fullerton and Edouard Aubert were down 5-2. As Ohio State already earned the doubles points from the first two matches, the Wisconsin duo was saved by the bell that decreed their match unfinished.
Unfortunately for Wisconsin, the singles matches did not provide any different results as the Buckeyes kept surging forward with no intention to back down, minimizing the Badgers’ opportunities to score.
Badger Sachiv Kumar played after a small two-game break where he was momentarily replaced by Collin BeDuhn for BeDuhn to catch up on his matches. It was not the comeback he was looking for as he lost straight sets 6-0, 6-1, a complete dismantling of his playstyle by Ohio State opponent Bryce Nakashima.
BeDuhn now sits with a higher number of singles losses than wins.
Zlatohlavek has struggled the most in his singles record, at 3-9 after his straight set loss to Buckeye Will Jansen. The match ended 6-2, 6-1 with no room for mistakes that cost Zlatohlavek dearly.
Meszaros followed suit to give away the three singles points the Buckeyes needed to win against Wisconsin. Meszaros lost another straight-set match, 6-4, 6-0, to his OSU contender, Alexander Bernard. Quite uncharacteristic for the Hungarian, as he showed extreme promise at the beginning of the Badgers’ season.
Similar to the doubles matches, Minasyan trailed in the singles match 6-1, 5-3 and Fullerton 6-0, 4-3. But Meszaros’s game was the nail in the coffin as Ohio State had already attained its four points, winning the best-of-seven matches.
Wisconsin freshman Aubert was the only Badger who stood out against the Buckeyes, leading his singles match against his opponent Preston Stearns 6-2 in set number one and down only 2-1 in set two. This match remained unfinished as well. Aubert possesses the best win-loss record among his teammates, sitting atop at a respectable 8-2.
The Badgers must bring change to their performance as they will face several other Big Ten contenders in the future.
