Badgers back in the win column

MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin men’s tennis team is back in the win column after trouncing Western Michigan at home on Friday night. The Badgers (4-1) swept the Broncos (3-2) 7-0 at Nielsen Tennis Stadium. 

The doubles competition was fierce against a tenacious Western Michigan team, but the Badgers did what they do best and pulled out the doubles point for the fifth straight match of the season. 

Michael Minasyan and Gabriel Huber started it off for the Badgers at the No. 1 slot. After fighting neck and neck for the first six games, the duo was able to pull ahead and secure a 6-4 victory over Western Michigan’s Fynn Lohse and Arjun Honnappa. 

The doubles point came down to a tiebreaker at No. 3 doubles between Wisconsin’s Jared Pratt and Jason Hildebrant against Western Michigan’s Ferdinand Schlueter and Peter Kuszynski. All tied up at 6-6, the Badger pair was not playing around and took care of business, securing seven straight tiebreaker points to win their match 7-6 (7-0) and put the Badgers on top 1-0 heading into singles. 

In singles, the Badgers carried their momentum from doubles into their next matches. They had their best singles showing since their 6-1 win over DePaul to open the season. 

Robin Parts was quick and took care of business at No. 6 singles. He dominated Lohse in a swift two-set match winning 6-1, 6-2, setting the pace for the rest of the team. 

Up next was Hildebrandt at No. 2 singles, securing his first singles win as a Badger with an impressive 6-3, 6-2 victory over Kuszynski, making it a perfect day for the graduate student taking home victories in both singles and doubles. He put Wisconsin up 3-0 with four matches remaining.

Minasyan secured the coveted fourth point for the Badgers at No. 5 singles, taking down Honnappa 6-2, 6-4 for the third singles win of the match, marking Minasyan’s fourth straight win this season. Across the courts at No. 4, Sebastian Vile claimed a 6-4, 6-3 victory against Western Michigan’s Brogan Pierce to add another Wisconsin point to the scoreboard. 

Huber was dueling it out at No. 2 singles using a third-set tiebreaker to take the match. After dropping a very close first set 7-5, he rallied back to convincingly take the second 6-2. A 10-7 tiebreaker sealed the deal and the Badgers were up 6-0. 

Pratt was the last Badger on the courts, playing out a…