WACO, TX — No. 6 Baylor men’s tennis (18-2, 1-0 Big 12) used a big doubles point and four singles matches to take a 5-2 victory in its conference opener over No. 9 TCU (15-4, 0-1 Big 12) Friday night at the Hurd Tennis Center.
Baylor is now 27-1 in its last 28 home matches and 11-0 at home this season. With the win, the Bears improved to 18-5 in Big 12 openers.
The Bears and Horned Frogs kept the doubles point close, but then top-ranked Jimmy Bendeck and Sven Lah struck first with a 6-4 victory over No. 6 Reese Stalder and Bertus Kruger on court one.
With both remaining matches in a tiebreaker, Johannes Schretter and Constantin Frantzen clinched the doubles point with a 7-6(5) win over Luc Fomba and Sander Jong at the No. 3 spot.
In singles action, Lah made quick work of Luc Fomba and won 6-3, 6-3 on court five. Then, TCU got on the board after No. 45 Matias Soto fell 7-5, 6-3 to seventh-ranked Alex Rybakov at the No. 1 spot.
Will Little gave the Bears a 3-1 lead after taking a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 115 Bertus Kruger on court four. Bendeck ended up clinching the match with his 7-6(1), 3-6, 6-2 triumph against Sander Jong on court six.
Electing to play the final matches out, 40th-ranked Schretter bested No. 25 Alastair Gray at the No. 2 spot, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, for his highest ranked win of the season and second-highest of his career.
TCU claimed the final point after Adrian Boitan fell in a third set tiebreaker, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(9), on court three.
To keep up with things all season long, follow the team on social media: @BaylorMTennis.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Baylor improves to 26-34 all-time against TCU and has won 18 of the last 21 matchups.
• Baylor is on a season-best nine-match winning streak
• BU improves to 7-2 against ranked opponents this season.
• Baylor is now 27-1 in its last 28 home matches dating back to 2017.
• Baylor is now 16-4 in the doubles point and 26-0 when winning the opening point this season.
• Baylor is now 18-5 all-time in Big 12 Conference openers.
• Baylor is now 61-7 in singles and doubles points at home this season.
• Jimmy Bendeck improves to 11-3 in dual-match singles action.
• Sven Lah is 16-1 in spring singles play and has won seven straight matches.
• Jimmy Bendeck and Sven Lah are 10-2 in spring doubles play and 9-1 against ranked foes.
• Johannes Schretter and Constantin Frantzen are 4-0 as doubles partners this season.
• Johannes Schretter has a team-high six wins over ranked opponents this season.
STAT OF THE MATCH
3 – the number of singles matches won by seniors against TCU.
TOP QUOTE
Head coach Brian Boland
On the win…
“We enjoyed it. It was a tremendous crowd, and everyone came out and supported a great college tennis match and it was everything (and) more than we thought it would be. I’m just happy for the guys. They really prepared well all week, and now we have to get ready to play Texas, so we do not have a lot of time. But a tribute to our leaders, they played really hard tonight and did a really good job preparing this week, along with the rest of the team. Once again, doubles is pivotal in terms of the momentum, especially in matches that are as competitive as this one. And congratulations to TCU, they played a great match, and I look forward to another opportunity to play them again down the road. The Big 12 is a big challenge, and now we have another top-five team in front of us on Sunday.”
WHAT’S NEXT
Baylor heads south for its first Big 12 road match of the season and will take on fourth-ranked Texas on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. CT. The match will be live on the Longhorn Network.
