MADISON, Wis. — After opening the season in Miami last Saturday, the Wisconsin men’s tennis team hosts its first matches of the season this weekend, as it welcomes DePaul on Friday, Jan. 19 and Notre Dame on Sunday, Jan 21. The matches will begin at 6 p.m. and 12 p.m. respectively, and will be played inside Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
Here are five things you should know before Wisconsin welcomes its two opponents:
1. SCOUTING THE BLUE DEMONS: The DePaul Blue Demons are 0-1 to begin the season after falling 6-1 to No. 14 Michigan in Ann Arbor on Monday, Jan. 15. Shourya Verma and Jona Gitschel were paired up on the No. 1 court and took down Michigan’s Gavin Young and Patorn Hanchaikul, 6-4. On the No. 2 court, fifth year seniors Laurentiu Mandocescu and Leon Huck defeated their doubles opponents Bjorn Swenson and Jacob Bickersteth by a score of 6-3 to earn the doubles point for DePaul, the team’s first point of the season. The Badgers and Blue Demons last met Jan. 20, 2023 in Madison, with Wisconsin securing a dominant 6-1 victory. DePaul’s 2022-23 season ended 11-15 overall and 2-4 in the Big East.
2. SCOUTING THE FIGHTING IRISH: As for Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish are 2-0 to start team play, with 7-0 and 4-0 home victories over IUPUI on Saturday, Jan. 13. The two teams last faced off a season ago on Feb. 18, and Wisconsin fell to Notre Dame, 5-2, in South Bend. After a fast Notre Dame win at No. 1 doubles, Wisconsin pulled out a gritty doubles point with the No. 2 and 3 doubles pairs of Jason Hildebrandt/Jared Pratt and Robin Parts/Sebastian Vile each earning wins. Notre Dame finished off the 2022-23 season 13-14 overall, and 3-9 in conference play.
3. LAST SERVE: In the Badgers’ last time out on the court against Miami on Jan 13, the team fell 4-2 in its first match of the season. All four of Wisconsin’s freshmen saw the court in the absence of graduate seniors Gabriel Huber and Jason Hildebrandt, and wasted no time getting introduced to the rhythm of team play. Wisconsin won the doubles point, with the No. 1 pair of Mihailo Popovic and Michael Minasyan and the No. 3 pair of Matthew Fullerton and Collin Beduhn defeating Miami.
4. FOLLOW THE ACTION: Live updates on the Badgers can be found on X (@BadgerMTennis) and Instagram (@wisconsintennis), while live scoring/streaming is HERE.
5. UP…
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