BATON ROUGE – Despite a tough fight in both singles and doubles, No. 2 Tennessee proved to be too much for the No. 35 LSU men’s tennis team as the Volunteers edged the Tigers 4-3 on Saturday afternoon at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium.
With the loss the Tigers fall to 7-10 overall and 2-4 in SEC play, Tennessee improves to 16-2 on the season and remain a perfect 6-0 in conference competition.
The SEC-East leading Volunteers took an early 1-0 lead by capturing the doubles point with wins on the top two courts. LSU’s 12th-ranked tandem of senior Sebastian Carlsson and junior Neal Skupski fell to Tennessee’s John Patrick Smith and Boris Conkic, the nation’s No. 1 doubles team, 8-3 on Court 1. The loss snapped Carlsson and Skupski’s four-match winning streak at the top doubles spot, while Smith and Conkic remain undefeated with a 13-0 record.
On Court 2, LSU’s sophomore pair of Stefan Szacinski and Roger Anderson couldn’t get the break they needed as they dropped a back-and-forth match to the 38th-ranked Tennessee pair of Rhyne Williams and Tennys Sandgren 8-6. The match on Court 3 was played to its completion, and the Tiger duo of senior Julien Gauthier and sophomore Olivier Borsos posted an 8-7 (7) victory over the Volunteers’ Ed Jones and Matteo Fago.
Tennessee kept the pressure on in singles as they quickly took a 3-0 lead with wins on Courts 1 and 3. No. 12 Smith claimed a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Borsos at the top singles spot, and 44th-ranked Sandgren tacked-on a 6-3, 6-1 over Szacinski on Court 3.
The Tigers retaliated as Gauthier cut the lead to 3-1 with a 6-3, 7-6 (5) win over Jarryd Chaplin on Court 6. After LSU picked up first set wins on Courts 4 and 5, the Tigers’ hope for a comeback rested on Skupski’s match with No. 3 Williams on Court 2.
Skupski, who dropped the first set 6-4, was down 5-3 in the second set. With the match on the line, the Liverpool, England, native rattled off three-straight games to take a 6-5 lead. Williams grabbed the next game to tie the set at 6-6, and then jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the tiebreak. Once again Skupski wouldn’t let up as he rallied for the next three points to cut it to 5-4, but Williams finished off the next two to take the match 6-4, 7-6 (4) and seal the win for Tennessee at 4-1.
With the match decided, the final two singles matches were still played to their completion. On Court 4, Carlsson claimed his third-straight victory with a 6-4, 7-6 (0) over Conkic, and junior Mark Bowtell outlasted 51st-ranked Fago in a third-set super tiebreaker 7-6, 2-6, (11-9) to make the final score 4-3.
“It was a very close and hard-fought match,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “The difference in doubles was small, and it was very tight in singles. This match serves as motivation for the guys to take care of the little details in practice to make themselves better the rest of the way. There are still a lot of things this team can accomplish.”
The Tigers return to action next week as Auburn and Alabama visit the “Dub.” The Tigers will face off with Auburn on Friday at 3 p.m. (CT) and will take on the Crimson Tide on Sunday at 1 p.m.
For up-to-date information and behind the scenes access to the Tigers, fans can follow the LSU men’s team on Twitter @lsutennis and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lsutennis.
#2 Tennessee 4, #35 LSU 3
Singles competition
1. #12 John-Patrick Smith (UT) def. Olivier Borsos (LSU) 6-3, 6-3
2. #3 Rhyne Williams (UT) def. #91 Neal Skupski (LSU) 6-4, 7-6 (4)
3. #44 Tennys Sandgren (UT) def. Stefan Szacinski (LSU) 6-3, 6-1
4. Mark Bowtell (LSU) def. #51 Matteo Fago (UT) 7-6, 2-6, 1-0 (9)
5. Sebastian Carlsson (LSU) def. Boris Conkic (UT) 6-4, 7-6 (0)
6. Julien Gauthier (LSU) def. Jarryd Chaplin (UT) 6-3, 7-6 (5)
Doubles competition
1. #1 John-Patrick Smith/Boris Conkic (UT) def. #12 Sebastian Carlsson/Neal Skupski (LSU) 8-3
2. #38 Rhyne Williams/Tennys Sandgren (UT) def. Roger Anderson/Stefan Szacinski (LSU) 8-6
3. Julien Gauthier/Olivier Borsos (LSU) def. Ed Jones/Matteo Fago (UT) 8-7 (7)
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (1,3,6,2,5,4)