Michigan Fights Through Tiebreakers to Start Weekend with Win at Indiana
2/27/2021 5:08:00 PM
// Kristy McNeil
Site: Bloomington, Ind. (IU Tennis Center)
Result: #14 Michigan 5, Indiana 2
Records: U-M (3-1, 3-0 B1G), Indiana (1-2, 1-2 BIG)
Next U-M Event: Sunday, Feb. 28 — at Purdue (West Lafayette, Ind.), Noon
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The No. 14-ranked University of Michigan men’s tennis team fought through a number of tiebreakers to secure a 5-2 win over Indiana on Saturday (Feb. 27) at the IU Tennis Center. It marked the Wolverines’ third consecutive win.
The No. 2 doubles team of Nick Beaty and Ondrej Styler claimed the doubles point for the Wolverines. The pair went up 5-3 over Patrick Fletchall and Andrew Redding and won their serve after being up 40-15 in the final game to finish 6-4.
No. 2-ranked Andrew Fenty and Mattias Siimar put on a strong display at No. 1 doubles as they went up 5-1 against Indiana’s Bennett Crane and Michael Andre and eventually won, 6-3, to improve to 7-1 on the season. In the first doubles match completed, Kristofer Siimar and Connor Johnston suffered their first loss at No. 3, 6-3.
In singles play No. 14-ranked Fenty was up 5-1 and broke No. 48 Crane’s serve to take his first singles set, 6-1, at No. 1. Fenty then blew through his second set also at 6-1 for his fifth straight singles win.
At No. 4, Mattias Siimar traded game for game with Luka Vukovic during his first set, which ended in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (4). Siimar was at 1-1 and held off Vukovic for four games, ultimately taking the second set, 6-2, and adding to Michigan’s lead, 3-0.
Johnston won his first set at No. 6 singles, 6-4, but opponent Fletchall rallied for the last two sets 6-1, 6-4 to give the Hoosiers their first point and cut Michigan’s edge to 3-1.
Patrick Maloney faced a challenge at No. 3, dropping the first set after being up 4-1 on Vikash Singh. The set ended in the second tiebreaker of the day, with Maloney ultimately winning, 7-6 (5), and he took the second set, 6-3, to make clinch the team victory, 4-1.
After taking a 4-1 lead in the first set against Redding at No. 2, No. 28-ranked Styler eked out the set in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (3). Even after breaking Redding’s serve multiple times throughout the match, Styler could not secure the next two sets, falling 7-6, 4-6, 3-6.
In the final singles match, Beaty bounced back from an opening-set loss and cruised in the third-set tiebreaker for a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (2) victory over Andre at No. 5.
Michigan heads to West Lafayette, Ind., to take on Purdue tomorrow (Sunday, Feb. 28) at noon. The Boilermakers lost a 5-2 match to Michigan State this afternoon.
Following are match-by-match results:
Singles
No. 1 — No. 14 Andrew Fenty (U-M) d. No. 48 Bennett Crane (IND), 6-1, 6-1
No. 2 — Andrew Redding (IND) d. No. 28 Ondrej Styler (U-M), 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-3
No. 3 — Patrick Maloney (U-M) d. Vikash Singh (IND), 7-6 (5), 6-3
No. 4 — Mattias Siimar (U-M) d. Luka Vukovic (IND), 7-6 (4), 6-2
No. 5 — Nick Beaty (U-M) d. Michael Andre (IND), 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (2)
No. 6 — Patrick Fletchall (IND) d. Connor Johnston (U-M), 4-6, 6-1, 6-4
Doubles
No. 1 — No. 2 Andrew Fenty/Mattias Siimar (U-M) d. Bennett Crane/Michael Andre (IND), 6-3
No. 2 — Nick Beaty/Ondrej Styler (U-M) d. Patrick Fletchall/Andrew Redding (IND), 6-4
No. 3 — Ilya Tiraspolsky/William Piekarsky (IND) d. Kristofer Siimar/Connor Johnston (U-M), 6-3
Order of Completion: Doubles 3-1-2, Singles 1-4-6-3-2-5