WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Entering the season, only one Mississippi State men’s tennis player had ever reached the semifinals of the NCAA Singles Championship.
Now, that one player has achieved the feat twice in as many seasons, as second-ranked and third-seeded junior Nuno Borges punched his ticket for his return to the NCAA semifinals on Saturday, notching a t7-6 (4), 6-4 decision over Tennessee’s 16th-ranked Timo Stodder, who was seeded 9-16.
Borges stormed out of the gate against Stodder, going up 4-1 early in the first set. Stodder responded by breaking back and then knotting up the score at 4-all. Borges took 5-4 and 6-5 leads, both on serve, but Stodder held on a deciding point to force a tiebreaker. In the breaker, Stodder took a 4-2 lead, but Borges won the final five points–the final point coming when Stodder netted a return to give the Bulldog junior a 7-4 victory in the tiebreaker to go up a set.
The second set was very back-and-forth to start, but Borges broke the Volunteer at 2-all to go up a break at 3-2 and would never relinquish that advantage, as the two-time All-American and SEC Player of the Year held his serve convincingly three times.
“I thought I served better than he did and I let go of a few service games and that got him back in the match,” Borges said. “I was up, 2-0, in the tiebreaker and gave him a few points and then I was 4-2 down. I made a really good push and won a couple really tough points. I thought I executed really well to get the tiebreaker. In the second set, I just kept pushing on my service games. I had a couple free points on the service game and I took advantage of it.”
In Sunday’s semifinal, which will not start before 12:30 p.m., Borges will take on seventh-ranked (and seventh-seeded) Borna Gojo of host Wake Forest. Gojo advanced to the semis by pulling out a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 decision against second-seeded and third-ranked William Blumberg of North Carolina on Saturday.
The two players have never met.
“Nuno is displaying a lot of grit and determination to succeed right now,” head coach Matt Roberts said. “He’s really in control of his positive self-talk and continues to tell himself that he’s tough. If you continue to tell yourself that, you will believe it. When he does that, good things will happen. He’s continuing to build his self-confidence. He did a great job pushing through the first set tiebreaker and through a lot of tough points today.”
In NCAA quarterfinal doubles action later Saturday, the top-ranked duo of Borges and Strahinja Rakic was forced indoors due to inclement weather in the Winston-Salem area for its match against UCLA’s 29th-ranked Martin Redlicki and Evan Zhu. The Bulldog tandem opened on a 4-2 run, but the Bruins marched back to cut State’s lead to 5-4, after which Redlicki netted a volley at 40-15 to give MSU an early one-set lead.
Roles reversed in the second set, with UCLA going up a service break at 4-2. Both sides held serve the remainder of the set, concluding with the Bruins taking a 6-3 decision in the set to force a 10-point match tiebreaker to decide who would advance to Sunday’s semifinals.
In the tiebreaker, UCLA was up by as much as 6-2 and eventually took an 8-3 lead with State serving. The Bulldogs held on both points, but the Bruins got a point for a 9-5 count. Borges and Rakic got a mini-break back to make it 9-6 and then held to cut the lead to 9-7, but their comeback attempt ran just short as UCLA claimed the next point to complete a 4-6, 6-3, 1-0(7) win that ended Borges and Rakic’s tremendous run in the NCAA Championship – the first Bulldog duo in 18 years to make the quarterfinals.
“Nuno and Strahinja had a great run, we just didn’t serve well enough in the tiebreaker and take advantage of our second serve returns,” Roberts said. “UCLA did a great job of getting back into the match. I’m really proud of how they competed all year–they improved a lot as the year progressed and really led us on the doubles courts down the stretch.”
Borges and Rakic’s run was highlighted by the pair climbing from unranked in March to the No. 1 spot entering the NCAA Championship in May.
Ole Miss’ Hartono advances to Final Four
A magical year for Ole Miss women’s tennis senior Arianne Hartono continues, as she defeated Pepperdine’s Luisa Stefani in three sets to advance to the NCAA singles semifinals Saturday, at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex.
Hartono became the second player in program history to reach the NCAA Final Four in singles, joining four-time All-American Paloma Collantes, who accomplished the feat twice in her illustrious career.
Stefani broke right away to start the match and held for a 2-0 lead, but Hartono won six straight games to take the first set 6-2 and the early momentum.
In her previous three matches, Hartono did not drop a set, but Stefani was able to break at 3-3 in the second and serve it out for 6-4 to force a decisive third set.
Hartono came into Saturday having not lost a three-setter this year, and she wasn’t about to start with what could have been her last match as a Rebel. She held to start the third and then broke Stefani twice in a four-game span to go up 4-0. Serving 5-1, 40-30 a pop-up shower delayed the outcome for a little bit. Once play resumed, two balls hit the net and bounced back on Hartono’s side as Stefani broke for 5-2. Not wanting to let Stefani get a foot in the final set, Hartono broke right back to clinch it 6-2 and reach her first ever Final Four.
Alabama’s Osama falls to No. 1 Redlicki
Alabama junior Mazen Osama lost to UCLA’s No. 1 Martin Redlicki 6-4, 7-5 on Saturday in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex.
Osama ends the season with an 18-8 record. He beat 12 nationally ranked foes. The Cairo, Egypt native, became the first Alabama men’s tennis player to make it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament. He defeated Michigan’s No. 47 Runhao Hua 6-4, 6-1 in the Round of 16.
After two-hour rain delay, Osama began the match with a 2-0 advantage before Redlicki battled back to take the first set. In the second set, Osama led 2-1 before Redlicki won three-straight games to go up 4-2. Osama responded with three-straight games to go up 5-4, but Redlicki closed out the match.
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