The Texas Tech Red Raiders men’s tennis team lost to the No. 10-ranked University of Central Florida Knights, 4-1, on March 13 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando.
The match began with Texas Tech securing the doubles point after victories by Sebastian Abboud and Tyler Stewart on court two, and Niksa Arsic and Thiago Guglieri on court one. These wins gave the Red Raiders an early lead against UCF.
However, UCF responded strongly in singles play, winning three matches quickly. Mehdi Benchakroun defeated Ludovico Vaccari at court three (6-0, 6-3), Paul Colin beat Felipe Pagnacco at court four (6-0, 6-2), and Clement Lemire overcame Abboud at court six (6-3, 6-0). With these results, UCF took a commanding 3-1 lead.
Texas Tech needed to win all remaining singles matches to claim victory. On court five, Guglieri forced a third set against Nicolas Oliveira before their match was left unfinished at a tie. At court one, Arsic battled Yassine Dlimi but their contest also went unfinished during a tiebreaker in the second set. On court two, Stewart split sets with Wissam Abderrahman but ultimately fell in the third set as Abderrahman clinched the overall win for UCF.
The Red Raiders now prepare for their next match against No. 5 TCU Horned Frogs in Fort Worth on Sunday afternoon.
Texas Tech men’s tennis has made 19 NCAA Tournament appearances and produced seven All-Americans over its history.
