April 2, 2009
COLUMBIA, S.C. – No. 17 South Carolina men’s tennis hosts a pair of SEC matches this weekend as the No. 45 Arkansas Razorbacks come to the Sam Daniel Tennis Center for a 2 p.m. match on Fri., April 3, and the No. 34 LSU Tigers arrive for a 1 p.m. contest on Sun., April 5. The Gamecocks are 3-3 in the SEC and have a 15-4 overall record this season after seeing their three-match winning streak snapped at No. 2 Mississippi last Sunday. Both of this weekend’s opponents feature a top-15 singles player and a ranked doubles team, while the Gamecocks bring a pair of ranked singles players into the matches and a top-30 doubles tandem.
South Carolina has won all 15 of the matches in which it has won the doubles point this season, and that success begins with the nation’s No. 28 tandem of junior Diego Cubas and freshman Ivan Machado. The duo is 13-6 on the season with an 11-5 mark in dual-match play. That record includes a 3-3 mark against top-30 opponents, including the then-No. 1 team in the nation from Wake Forest. Close on Cubas and Machado’s heels is South Carolina’s No. 3 team of senior Jaime Cuellar and sophomore Johannes Pulsfort. That tandem is 11-2 in dual matches, including a 4-2 mark in SEC play. Two Gamecocks are nationally ranked in singles this week, starting with Cubas, who enters the weekend matches at No. 52 behind a 20-8 overall record. Cubas is 9-7 in dual matches and 2-2 in league play. Junior Ivan Cressoni is back in the national rankings this week at No. 123 after making his season debut in the No. 110 spot in early March. Cressoni is 12-1 on the season and is just two wins away from tying his career high of 14 wins, which he reached his freshman year.
Arkansas is 9-9 overall and 1-5 in the SEC after being swept by Tennessee and Georgia last weekend. The Razorbacks’ lone league win was a 4-3 decision at Vanderbilt on March 15, which snapped a six-match losing streak. Senior Blake Strode leads the Arkansas lineup with a No. 13 national ranking behind a 19-10 overall record and a 9-6 mark in the No. 1 singles spot. After winning nine of his first 10 matches of the spring campaign, Strode has battled to a 3-5 mark in his most recent outings. Like the Gamecocks, the Razorbacks rely on doubles to start their matches on the right foot, winning all nine of the matches in which they have won the doubles point. The Razorback duo of Dmitry Lebedev and Chris Nott is currently ranked No. 58 in the country with a 10-3 overall record, including a 2-2 mark in SEC play. The tandem has played in all three spots in the lineup and is 3-1 in the No. 1 position for the Razorbacks, although they did not play together in last weekend’s SEC matches.
The LSU Tigers enter the weekend with a 6-8 overall record and a 1-5 mark in SEC action. LSU faces No. 10 Florida on Friday before traveling to Columbia to face the Gamecocks. Senior Michael Venus is the top Tiger, ranked No. 6 in the nation with an 18-7 overall record, including an 8-5 mark at No. 1 singles. He is 13-6 against nationally-ranked opponents and is riding a four-match winning streak into the weekend. That stretch includes wins over the then-No. 7 and No. 10 players in the nation from Tennessee and Georgia, respectively. The reigning SEC Men’s Tennis Player of the Week is also among the top 10 in doubles, teaming with freshman Neal Skupski for an 11-7 overall record to rank eighth in the nation. The duo is 8-6 in the Tigers’ No. 1 doubles spot after enduring a three-match losing streak, although all three losses came against teams ranked in the nation’s top eight.
South Carolina is 12-8 in the all-time series with Arkansas, having won three of the last four outings. Against LSU, the Gamecocks are 7-20 with the Tigers riding a three-match win streak over South Carolina.
