Huskies Open Season Sweeping Vandals

SEATTLE – The Husky men’s tennis team took care of business in its 2024 season and home opener, earning a 7-0 sweep over Idaho at the Nordstrom Tennis Center. The Dawgs did not drop a set in the first match, and withstood an early challenge from the Vandals in the doubles point.
 
Second-year Head Coach Rahim Esmail likes the work the Dawgs have continued to put in, and was excited to see that work finally get tested in a match setting.
 
“First match of the year, you’ve done all the work and trained and got to this point, and you want to put the product out there and see what things are working well and what adjustments you need to make,” said Esmail.
 
“It’s always a building process whether you’re starting your second season as a coach or your twentieth. Every year is new and every year brings new players and new talent. But this group is really bought in to what we want the culture to be like. This team is doing a really good job of putting in efforts towards making it even better. I really like where this team is at. What we do this season is totally up to them; we’ll continue to grow. We still feel we’re the underdogs and we’re going to have to continue to build from within.”
 
In doubles, the Huskies’ 12th-ranked tandem of Cesar Bouchelaghem and Dzianis Zharyn breezed to a 6-0 win at the No. 1 position in barely twenty minutes. But Idaho took a lead on both courts two and three, and had simultaneous match points on both courts to be on the verge of taking the point.
 
But both Husky duos fought off the match point chances and won deciding points to get back into it. At the No. 2 position, Nedim Suko teamed with recent addition Ivan Sodan in his first NCAA match, and they finished a comeback from 2-5 down to win, 7-5, to clinch the point. Han-Chih Lin and Brett Pearson were up 6-5 at No. 3 when their match was suspended.
 
“We got off to a slow start on a couple courts in doubles while we had an extremely fast start on court one,” said Esmail. “They’re our most experienced doubles team and it showed how comfortable they are with each other, and the other guys need a few more matches under their belts to get as comfortable as Denis and Cesar. But they did a really good job in the end gutting things out. The last 15-20 minutes of doubles were really good. Singles the guys took care of business, especially the upper-classmen, they jumped out to quick…