April 2, 2010
LEXINGTON, Ky. – No. 38 South Carolina men’s tennis dropped a narrow 4-3 decision at No. 10 Kentucky Friday afternoon at Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex. Gamecock senior Pedro Campos swept both his matches against opponents ranked higher than him. He teamed with fellow senior Diego Cubas to upset the nation’s 13th-ranked doubles team, while Campos single-handedly topped the nation’s No. 44 player in the No. 2 singles spot, rallying from down a set to claim the victory.
The Gamecocks jumped out to an early lead in the match by winning the doubles point for the third-straight match. The edge began with Cubas and Campos, the nation’s 66th-ranked team this week, storming to an 8-4 lead over No. 13 Eric Quigley and Brad Cox in the No. 1 spot. After the Wildcats took the No. 3 match, South Carolina’s No. 2 tandem of Ivan Cressoni and Ivan Machado got a late service break to score a 9-7 win to clinch the point.
Kentucky wasted little time in leveling the match and surging ahead as Anthony Rossi and No. 13 Quigley picked up quick wins in the Nos. 4 and 1 matches, respectively. Machado got the Gamecocks back to even at 2-2 with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Graeme Dyce in the No. 6 match. In the No. 3 contest, Cox fought out a second-set tiebreaker over Cressoni to put the Wildcats back up 3-2. Alberto Gonzalez gave Kentucky the victory with a straight-set win over Johannes Pulsfort in the No. 5 match.
Campos, meanwhile, had a battle on his hands to extend his winning streak beyond the 12 matches he had collected entering Friday’s contest. No. 44 Alex Musialek had claimed the first set 6-1, but Campos fought him off in the second set, forcing a tiebreaker. The Gamecock senior outlasted his opponent to win the tiebreaker 7-5. With the team outcome already decided, the players played a super tiebreaker instead of a full third set with Campos dominating 10-2.
South Carolina will try to bounce back from the tight loss on Sun., Apr. 4, at No. 35 Vanderbilt.
Results
Doubles (Order of Finish: 1, 3, 2)
1. (66) Diego Cubas/Pedro Campos (SC) def. (13) Eric Quigley/Brad Cox (UK) 8-4
2. Ivan Cressoni/Ivan Machado (SC) def. Alex Lambropoulos/Alberto Gonzalez (UK) 9-7
3. Alex Musialek/Anthony Rossi (UK) def. Johannes Pulsfort/ Alexander Kostanov (SC) 8-3
Singles (Order of Finish: 4, 1, 6, 3, 5, 2)
1. (13) Eric Quigley (UK) def. (59) Diego Cubas (SC) 6-0, 6-3
2. (79) Pedro Campos (SC) def. (44) Alex Musialek (UK) 1-6, 7-6 (5), 1-0 (2)
3. Brad Cox (UK) def. Ivan Cressoni (SC) 6-2, 7-6 (4)
4. Anthony Rossi (UK) def. Alexander Kostanov (SC) 6-0, 6-2
5. Alberto Gonzalez (UK) def. Johannes Pulsfort (SC) 6-4, 6-1
6. Ivan Machado (SC) def. Graeme Dyce (UK) 6-2, 6-4
