SEATTLE – With a trio of third set victories, the Husky men’s tennis team picked up a big win in its first home match in nearly a month, knocking off visiting Arkansas by a 4-1 count. The Dawgs kicked off a four-match homestand at the Nordstrom Tennis Center by taking down the SEC foe behind singles wins from Brett Pearson, Han-Chih Lin, Nedim Suko, and Cesar Bouchelaghem.
“We went to their place early in the season last year and basically had the exact kind of battle as we had today, but it went their way,” said Head Coach Rahim Esmail. “We talked about that and said we need to make today about competing and finding a way. It was two good teams going toe to toe, and whatever tennis you’re playing that day, how you compete and find a little edge is what’s important. I think we did a good job of that in the second half of that match onwards.”
“Both teams played the level of tennis to allow themselves to win, and I just thought we really competed extremely hard on the courts where we came out victorious,” said Esmail. “If you want to be a great team you have to be battle-tested and put yourself in uncomfortable environments and we’ve had that the past three weeks. We said let’s use that to make us better. We came out and had a great week of practice and got back to work.”
Washington (4-4) avenged a loss to Arkansas last year in Fayetteville. But the Razorbacks opened up with the doubles point win to take the 1-0 lead. Senior Jim Hendrikx returned to action for the first time this season, teaming with Ivan Sodan at third doubles, but they dropped a 3-6 set to Arkansas’ Smillie/Sweeney. 10th-ranked Dzianis Zharyn and Bouchelaghem also lost a 3-6 decision at No. 1 doubles to Manuel/Horwood.
The Huskies mounted a comeback by taking four of the six first sets in singles, and in the two they lost, they won second sets to force deciding thirds.
The only singles match to end in two sets was won by sophomore Brett Pearson, who gave the Dawgs the early lift with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Alan Sau Franco at No. 6 singles.
The next point came from senior Han-Chih Lin, who got his fourth-straight win, and second-straight over a ranked opponent, defeating 107th-ranked Melvin Manuel, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1. Lin now has 50 career singles wins.
Washington got a third point with another three-set comeback, as Nedim Suko turned around his match against Stefanos Savva, winning the final four games in a row in the third set to overcome a 2-4 deficit to win…
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