SEATTLE – Playing a PNW rival that it knows well, the Husky men’s tennis team knew it would have a fight on its hands today at the Nordstrom Tennis Center. The Portland Pilots made a push in singles but Washington responded and secured a 4-2 victory as Nedim Suko and Han-Chih Lin finished three-set victories back-to-back.
“They’re a very tough team, they compete hard, and we knew it was going to be a match where we’d have to earn every single point,” said Head Coach Rahim Esmail. “A lot of courts could have gone either way. We found a way to gut it out. Every match on our schedule we expect them to come down to a point here or there to decide it and those are the matches we want to be in.”
The Huskies opened up with a strong doubles point to take the 1-0 lead. Suko and Brett Pearson combined for a 6-3 win at No. 2 over Portland’s Brown/Skobelev. Then Han-Chih Lin and Jim Hendrikx earned a 6-4 win, after being down 0-3 to start, at No. 3 doubles over Ocana/Groysman. Cesar Bouchelaghem and Dzianis Zharyn were on serve at No. 1 singles at 5-6 when the point was clinched.
Zharyn grabs the first point in singles with a 6-2, 6-2 win! ?#GoHuskies pic.twitter.com/tOx71r2hQ4
— Washington Men’s Tennis (@UW_MTennis) February 23, 2024
Portland came out and got an edge early in singles, taking four of the six first sets. But UW would respond to force third sets in three of those four.
Two straight-set matches were split between the two teams. Washington got a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 2 singles from Zharyn over Nicolas Ocana. Portland got its first point as Nikola Keremedchiev stopped Brett Pearson, 6-1, 6-4, at No. 5 singles.
The remaining four matches all went the distance. Portland briefly tied it up at 2-2 as Jim Hendrikx dropped a tight three setter on court six to Stefan Skobelev. But Suko and Lin were both leading their third sets and trying to close things out.
Suko completed his match first, defeating Maxim Groysman in a come-from-behind 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 match at the four spot. Then Lin landed the final blow, serving out a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 3 singles over Luka Vukovic. The final match was stopped with Bouchelaghem and Oscar Brown in a third set at No. 1 singles.
“Nedim does a great job of just hanging in and hanging in, he doesn’t go away, and one of his qualities is how hard he fights and competes,” said Esmail. “And Han-Chih has been raising the bar for himself the last couple weeks and because he’s done that I think he’s…
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