No. 3 Men's Tennis Defends Home Court with 5-2 Win Over No. 15 Arizona
WACO, Texas – After dropping one spot to No. 3 in the latest polls following last week’s loss at Texas A&M, No. 3 Baylor men’s tennis bounced back with a strong 5-2 victory over No. 15 Arizona Wednesday evening at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.
The Bears are 17-3 for the third time in the last five seasons and have now won all three matches they’ve played following a loss this year. BU handed UA (15-2) just its second loss of the 2020-21 campaign, snapping the Wildcats’ 13-match winning streak.
Baylor won the doubles point with an impressive showing across all three courts. For the first time in their collegiate careers, Finn Bass and Charlie Broom paired up for a 6-3 win on court three against Filip Malbasic/Gustaf Strom. Then, No. 33 Matias Soto/Nick Stachowiak took care of Carlos Hassey/Alejandro Reguant on two, 6-2, to seal the point. No. 10 Constantin Frantzen/Sven Lah were unfinished on court one, leading 5-3 over Jett Middleton/Jonas Ziverts.
Heading into singles up a point, BU gained a boost of momentum as No. 46 Adrian Boitan dominated at the No. 1 spot, quickly giving Baylor a second tally by defeating No. 50 Ziverts 6-4, 6-0.
No. 103 Broom followed suit with a straight-set victory on court five, 6-4, 6-2 against Hassey for his 10th singles win in a row and team-leading 13th of the season. No. 56 Soto clinched the match for the Bears on court two, winning 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 over No. 54 Malbasic and giving BU a 4-0 advantage.
As the remaining matches played out, No. 74 Stachowiak finished off a straight-set win on four, 6-4, 7-5 against Reguant, but it would be Baylor’s final point of the night as No. 43 Lah and Spencer Furman were each outlasted in three-set battles. Lah dropped a ranked matchup to No. 105 Gustaf Strom, 2-6, 7-6(4), 2-6, and Furman fell to Nick Lagaev 4-6, 6-2, 2-6.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Baylor improved to 17-3 for the third time in the last five seasons.
• BU is now 7-3 this year against ranked opponents.
• The Bears are 15-5 in the doubles point in the 2021 dual campaign.
• Baylor is now 14-1 in matches when winning the doubles point.
• BU now holds a combined 82-16 this season in singles and 39-15 in doubles for a whopping .796 winning percentage across all contests.
• No. 103 Charlie Broom collected his team-leading 13th singles win of the spring and 10th in a row.
• No. 56 Matias Soto leads the Bears with a 6-2 record against nationally ranked opponents, adding to his tally with tonight’s win over No. 54 Filip Malbasic.
• No. 46 Adrian Boitan picked up his fourth ranked win of the spring by defeating No. 50 Jonas Ziverts.
STAT OF THE MATCH
7 – Baylor earned its seventh win against a top-25 opponent this season.
TOP QUOTES
Interim head coach Michael Woodson
Thoughts on tonight’s match…
“It was hard to wait six days after playing a tough match at Texas A&M, you always want to rebound quickly and get back out and compete. You never want to say losing is good, but I do think we’ve responded really well after the three losses we’ve had this year. I think that just speeds up the process for us. We need to continue to stay hungry and look to improve, so that adversity of losing to A&M really helped us tonight against a feisty, fantastic group of competitors in Arizona. That team is good.”
On Finn Bass and Charlie Broom making their doubles debut together…
“It was great energy from the two of them. They’ve been working hard together this past week and it’s been fun to see their development. They go all the way back to eight years old, they’re from the same county in England, and I think it’s pretty cool for them to play together. They had immediate energy and clicked really well.”
Third-year sophomore Finn Bass
On playing alongside his childhood friend Broom…
“It’s really special to play with Charlie. We represent the same county in the UK, so we’ve known each other for a long, long time. To finally get out on the doubles court together was really good. I think we played well, we came out with really good energy today but I think we’ve got a lot more to give as a pair. I think it’s the start of a really special partnership and I look forward to what’s to come.”
Fifth-year senior Charlie Broom
On what’s been working so well for him lately…
“I’m just having a lot of fun. I’m improving by working with the coaches and working with the team. I’m just enjoying playing tennis so much and that makes it easy to play well when you’re in that kind of mindset. I’m just going to keep doing the same things, keep loving being out there on the court and competing with the guys. As long as that continues, I’ll keep being happy.”
WHAT’S NEXT
The Bears (17-3) return to the Hurd Tennis Center for a doubleheader on Saturday, March 20, against Louisiana and Dallas Baptist. The matches are set to begin at Noon and 6 p.m. CT, respectively.