STANFORD, Calif. – No. 10 Stanford men's tennis had its seven-match winning streak snapped in a 4-2 defeat to No. 19 UCLA Friday afternoon at Taube Family Tennis Stadium.
The Cardinal moved to 12-3 overall, suffering its first loss in 10 matches at home this season and its first defeat overall since Feb. 15. Stanford dropped its first Pac-12 match of the season, moving to 2-1 in conference play. UCLA improved to 9-4 overall and 2-0 in the Pac-12.
A back-and-forth battle for the doubles point ended with the Bruins taking the point in a tiebreaker. Sameer Kumar and Timothy Sah got a 6-2 win at No. 3, but the Bruins countered with a win at No. 2. It came down to No. 1 and a battle of top-50 doubles teams in Stanford's Axel Geller and Alexandre Rotsaert (No. 43) and UCLA's Maxime Cressy and Keegan Smith (No. 36). The Bruin duo erased a 6-3 deficit in the tiebreaker with five unanswered points to capture the win and the doubles point for UCLA.
The Bruins pushed it to 3-0 with wins at No. 5 and No. 2, before the Cardinal snapped the Bruins' momentum.
Sah got Stanford on the board with a 6-2, 7-5 victory at No. 6, his third straight win.
Moments later, Kumar recorded his seventh consecutive victory. The Cardinal senior posted a 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 4 to make it 3-2.
With all three matches on the back courts complete, everyone's attention turned to the stadium courts. Geller and Cressy were locked in a tight match on court one. Cressy grabbed a 7-5 first-set win and held a slim advantage in the second set. Geller cut it to 5-4 and looked to continue his charge with a deuce point in the next game. Cressy captured the point, however, and the match to give UCLA the win.
Stanford looks to rebound Saturday, as the Cardinal faces No. 12 USC. The second match of the Dick Gould Stanford/SoCal Challenge is set to begin at 1 p.m. at Taube Family Tennis Stadium No. 19 UCLA 4, No. 10 Stanford 2
DOUBLES
1. No. 36 Maxime Cressy/Keegan Smith (UCLA) d. No. 43 Axel Geller/Alexandre Rotsaert (STAN) 7-6 (6)
2. Govind Nanda/Connor Rapp (UCLA) d. Jack Barber/William Genesen (STAN) 6-4
3. Sameer Kumar/Timothy Sah (STAN) d. Bryce Pereira/Patrick Zahraj (UCLA) 6-2
Order of Finish: 3,2,1
SINGLES
1. No. 92 Maxime Cressy (UCLA) d. No. 8 Axel Geller (STAN) 7-5, 6-4
2. No. 80 Keegan Smith (UCLA) d. No. 33 Alexandre Rotsaert (STAN) 6-2, 6-4
3. No. 60 William Genesen (STAN) vs. Govind Nanda (UCLA) 6-7 (8), 2-2, UNF
4. No. 61 Sameer Kumar (STAN) d. Patrick Zahraj (UCLA) 6-3, 6-3
5. Ben Goldberg (UCLA) d. Sangeet Sridhar (STAN) 6-3, 6-0
6. Timothy Sah (STAN) d. Mathew Tsolakyan (UCLA) 6-2, 7-5
Order of Finish: 5,2,6,4,1
