April 16, 2004
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – South Carolina men’s tennis dropped a tough 5-2 decision to No. 27 Arkansas Friday afternoon in their final weekend of regular season play as the SEC Tournament begins to take shape.
Arkansas took the ever-vital doubles point, but Carolina did not give it up easily. Viktor Hebrand and Nathan Price notched a quick 8-2 victory at No. 3 doubles over Ben Atkinson and Carl Wermee. However, Tom Eklund and Marcus Westman edged out an 8-5 victory at No. 2 doubles over Rohan Gajjar and Adrians Zguns. Arkansas took an 8-6 victory at No. 1 doubles to take the doubles point as the topped Carolina’s Geraldo Knorr and Pedro Rodrigues.
In singles action, Gajjar struck first, giving Arkansas the 2-0 match lead as he defeated Carolina’s Carl Wermee at No. 3 singles, 6-4, 6-1. Pedro Rodrigues put Carolina on the board with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over the Razorbacks’ Viktor Hebrand.
Arkansas went up 3-1 when 83rd-ranked Nathan Price notched a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Carolina’s Marcus Westman and No. 1 singles. 19th ranked Adrians Zguns clinched the match for Arkansas as he topped USC’s Tom Eklund, 7-6 (3), 6-2 at No. 2 singles.
Playing out the match, Imraan Ismail of Arkansas added another point for the Razorbacks with a 5-7, 6-3, 2-1 ret., win over Carolina’s Ben Atkinson at No. 5 singles. Carolina struck last as Geraldo Knorr pulled out a 7-6 (3), 6-4 victory at No. 4 singles over UA’s Matt Roberts to put the final score at 5-2, Razorbacks.
The Gamecocks now head to Baton Rouge, La., for their Sunday regular season finale at the 14th-ranked Tigers of LSU. At time of this release, South Carolina was currently sitting in 10th place in the conference and is fighting for position in the SEC Tournament (two matches were still underway). If the SEC Tournament were to begin right now, Carolina would face the host Vanderbilt Commodores. The SEC Tournament will run from April 22-25 in Nashville, Tenn.
