April 4, 2010
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – No. 38 South Carolina men’s tennis suffered a 6-1 loss at No. 35 Vanderbilt Sunday afternoon at Currey Tennis Center. Senior Pedro Campos was the lone Gamecock to win his singles match, stretching his win streak to 14 matches. Vanderbilt (11-8, 3-5 SEC) swept the three doubles matches to take the early lead over the Gamecocks (9-9, 1-7 SEC) and rolled on to win the first three singles matches to be decided.
South Carolina dropped the doubles point for the first time in four matches to give the Commodores the early advantage. The momentum carried over into singles action quickly as Alex Zotov, Charlie Jones and Bryant Salcedo closed out Ivan Cressoni, Ivan Machado and Alexander Kostanov in the Nos. 3, 6 and 4 matches, respectively to seal the team victory for Vanderbilt.
Campos, ranked No. 79 in the nation this week, stopped the Gamecock skid with a solid 6-3, 6-3 win over No. 114 Vijay Paul in the No. 2 match. The Commodores won the No. 5 match, leaving just the teams’ top two players on the court. No. 37 Ryan Lipman took the first set from No. 59 Diego Cubas 7-5, thanks to a late service break, but the Gamecock senior battled back to win the second 6-4. With the match decided, the two went to a super-tiebreaker for the third set, which Lipman edged out to pick up the final win.
South Carolina returns to Columbia for the last two home matches of the season this weekend. The Gamecocks will host No. 8 Georgia on Friday and No. 3 Tennessee on Sunday.
Results
Doubles (Order of Finish: 2, 1, 3)
1. Alex Zotov/Adam Backer (VU) def. (66) Diego Cubas/Pedro Campos (SC) 8-6
2. (53) Ryan Lipman/Bryant Salcedo (VU) def. Ivan Cressoni/Ivan Machado (SC) 8-5
3. Vijay Paul/Alex DiValerio (VU) def. Johannes Pulsfort/ Alexander Kostanov (SC) 8-6
Singles (Order of Finish: 3, 6, 4, 2, 5, 1)
1. (37) Ryan Lipman (VU) def. (59) Diego Cubas (SC) 7-5, 4-6, 1-0
2. (79) Pedro Campos (SC) def. (114) Vijay Paul (VU) 6-3, 6-3
3. Alex Zotov (VU) def. Ivan Cressoni (SC) 6-0, 6-4
4. Bryant Salcedo (VU) def. Alexander Kostanov (SC) 6-2, 6-2
5. Adam Baker (VU) def. Johannes Pulsfort (SC) 6-4, 6-3
6. Charlie Jones (VU) def. Ivan Machado (SC) 6-1, 6-2
