Men’s tennis opens season with doubleheader of victories

The Utah State men’s tennis team began their season on Sunday with two dominant victories, defeating Weber State 7-0 before handling Idaho State 6-1.

“There were a lot of positives and a lot of things for us to work on,” said USU head coach James Wilson. “I was pleased with the results, but know we have to get a lot better.”

The Aggies started the day in doubles play versus Weber State, wrapping up victories in the 2 and 3 matchups, as USU’s Sergiu Bucur and Rithvik Bollipalli defeated Weber State’s Paul Ohde and Cezary Walkusz, 6-2, while Felipe Acosta and Duro Opacic defeated Nick Werner and Bo-han Li 7-6 (7-5).

With the doubles point in hand, USU moved to singles play, where the Aggies dominated, winning all matches in straight sets. Acosta gave USU its second point of the day, defeating Ohde 6-3, 6-1. Bucur followed shortly, defeating Junhao Ye 6-1, 6-1 in the 2 matchup, while Opacic defeated Michiel Van Schoor 6-1, 7-5 at the 4 spot.

At the 1 spot, Isaac Arturo Arevalo beat Kris Van Wyk  6-3, 6-1. Jose Carvajal continued USU’s dominant day, defeating Nick Werner 6-2, 6-2, before Rithvik Bollipalli finished out the match with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Bo-han Li.

After a short rest, the Aggies came back out to the court for part two of the doubleheader to take on Idaho State. Utah State again walked away with the doubles point on the strength of Arevalo and Carvajal defeating ISU’s Peter Thrac and David Felix 6-1, with Opacic and Acosta sealing the point with a 6-4 victory over Fynn Lohse and Francis Filipovich.

In singles play, Acosta continued his stellar day, finishing off Filipovich in straight sets to win 6-1, 6-1. Arturo staved off Felix at the 1 spot, winning 6-4, 6-4 to put USU on the verge of their second victory of the day. Carvajal sealed the win with a dominant straight sets victory, not dropping a game in a 6-0, 6-0 win over Gary Rendek.

The final matches played out the remainder of the match, with Opacic finishing off Lukas Ridemar in the third set with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 victory. Bucur battled back from a first set stumble to defeat Thrac 0-6, 6-1, 6-2. Lohse put Idaho State on the board in the final match of the day, defeating Bollipalli 6-3, 6-3.

“First matches are always a little bit shaky in some regards,” Wilson said. “We got to see our guys see some real competition and it gives us a lot of things that we need to get better at.”

The matches kicked off Utah State’s defense of their second straight Mountain West title. Last season, USU went 19-9 en route to a conference championship before losing to TCU 4-1 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Utah State will continue their season on Saturday when they play at San Diego at 2 pm. The Aggies will then play UC Irvine on Sunday at noon.