ORLANDO, Fla. – North Carolina A&T men's tennis completed the competitive portion of its spring break trip to Florida with two wins on Wednesday.
In the early afternoon, the Aggies defeated Concordia University-Wisconsin 7-0 at the USTA Tennis Center, then defeated Judson University 6-1 on Wednesday evening. The Aggies improved to 8-1 overall and 4-1 during the spring break trip, which included splitting their two matches against Atlantic-10 schools, with a win over St. Bonaventure and a loss to Temple.
Against the CUW Falcons, the Aggies took the doubles point, starting with a 6-2 win at No. 3 doubles, using the freshmen duo of Niklas Laux and Gabriel Linovic to beat Murilo Zeni and Kristopher Greenhaw. It marked the first time the two first-year talents have teamed together this season. Another freshman duo – Ben Werle and Illia Olefir – made it official with a 6-3 win over Gustavo Funo and Renan Botelho at No. 2 doubles. However, the Aggies had to fight for the doubles sweep.
A&T sophomore Jindrich Brill and junior Kaua Santos had to take their No. 1 doubles match to a tiebreaker before defeating Renan Revite and Ryan Bilan 7-6, 8-6 in the tiebreaker. While his doubles match was a tussle, Santos had almost no issues in his No. 1 singles match against Revite.
Santos gave the Aggies a 2-0 lead with a 6-0, 6-0 win. Werle also looked impressive at No. 6 singles with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Greenhaw. Linovic got another win for A&T's freshman class with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Botelho. Even with the match won, the Aggies kept striving. Laux defeated Bilan 6-1, 6-2 at No. 4 singles, followed by Brill winning again at No. 2 singles with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Zeni.
Olefir captured the fourth win of the match for an A&T freshman with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Funo at No. 3 singles. Olefir, along with Werle as his doubles partner again, had a setback at No. 3 doubles against the Judson duo of Julius Fortun and Cesar Otondo.
"We started slowly on my serve. We lost my serve," said Olefir. "But the next game on their serve, we wanted to break them so bad, so we did. Afterward, we lost our serve again, but unfortunately, we couldn't break them back."
Before the loss at No. 3 doubles, Brill and Santos won at No. 1 doubles over Brayden Kopp and Florian Koppitsch to improve to 6-2 on the season. Brill and Santos won despite falling behind 2-0. Referring to his partner as Brilly, Santos said they had a strong response with energy. Unfortunately, the Aggies lost the doubles point when Judson's Joshua Bavich and Brock Dawson defeated senior Mathieu Dussaubat and Laux 7-6 and 7-4 in the tiebreaker.
Werle helped the Aggies recover with a win at No. 6 singles. Werle defeated Ian Beeman 6-2, 6-0 to improve to 2-0 on the day. Brill remained undefeated at a magnificent 9-0 with a win over Javier Sanchez 6-3, 6-0. Laux gave the Aggies a 3-1 lead with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Otondo at No. 4 singles. Linovic gave the Aggies the win with a win at No. 5 singles, 6-1, 6-4, over Niel Hentrich.
Laux and Linovic are both 7-2 this season. Santos is 8-0 this season. Seven of those wins are at No. 1 singles, including his 6-4, 6-1 win over Kopp on Wednesday.
"My opponent played a very strong serve game in the first set," Santos said. "But I was able to make a break to secure the set. In the second set, my intensity was very high, bringing the point to the board."
Olefir closed things out with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Nicolas Donoso at No. 3 singles.
I started strong with a 2-0 lead," said Olefir. "Those games were important for me because I usually do not start well."
After Olefir's outstanding start, he lost the next two games even though he played well during both games. Olefir and Donoso had long rallies throughout the first set before Olefir broke Donoso's serve. Olefir held his serve until getting the 6-4 win in Set No. 1. In the second set, Olefir broke Donoso's serve early and took a 5-3 lead before Donoso broke his serve.
"I made an unacceptable mistake," said Olefir about Donoso breaking his serve. "But I recovered and won a tough game and match for the Aggies."
