BATON ROUGE — The second-ranked LSU men’s tennis team kicked off the 75th anniversary season of LSU tennis with shutout wins over Southern and Centenary.
“It was a good way to get started,” said LSU coach Jeff Brown. “We were able to play some players that don’t have quite as much experience as they need to compete in the SEC.”
In the morning, LSU breezed by Southern winning 6-0 with four players winning their respective match 6-0, 6-0.
Junior Ajay Ramaswami clinched the match with his 6-0, 6-0 win over Gary Bertrand in the No. 3 spot.
The afternoon match with Centenary proved to be a slightly more difficult as each of LSU’s six players won in straight sets.
Senior Tom Hand, ranked No. 13 in the nation, won two matches on the day to improve his career wins total to 91, tying him for eighth place in LSU history for career wins.
The Tigers return to the court on Sunday for a 1 p.m. match with in-state rival New Orleans.
“New Orleans is a team that we can not take lightly,” said Brown. “With the way college tennis is becoming, anybody can beat anybody. We have to be able to avoid the upset.”
#2 LSU 6, Southern 0
Singles
No. 1 – #13 Tom Hand (LSU) def. Brent Beamon, 6-2, 6-0
No. 2 – Dan Kiernan (LSU) def. Danny Broudy, 6-0, 6-0
No. 3 – Ajay Ramaswami (LSU) def. Gary Bertrand, 6-0, 6-0
No. 4 – John Gray Pou (LSU) def. Anthony Edwards, 6-0, 6-0
No. 5 – Jonathan Hurd (LSU def. Rodney Lavard, 6-0, 6-0
No. 6 – Jesse Smatt (LSU) won by default
#2 LSU 7, Centenary 0
Doubles
No. 1 – Hand-Rubin (LSU) def. Kleiman-Killen, 8-1
No. 2 – Ramaswami-Smatt (LSU) def. Allen-Street, 8-3
No. 3 – Kiernan-Pou (LSU) def. Ashley-Collins, 8-4
Singles
No. 1 – #13 Tom Hand (LSU) def. Eden Kleiman, 6-2, 6-3
No. 2 – Ed Rubin (LSU) def. Todd Killen, 6-3, 6-4
No. 3 – Dan Kiernan (LSU) def. Jimmy Allen, 6-2, 6-2
No. 4 – Jesse Smatt (LSU) def. Will Street, 6-0, 6-0
No. 5 – Ajay Ramaswami (LSU) def. Chris Collins, 6-0, 6-2
No. 6 – John Gray Pou (LSU) def. J.T. Cope, 6-0, 6-2