SALT LAKE CITY – Playing without its top player – Axel Geller – on the road, No. 12 Stanford men's tennis could not come up with the win Sunday afternoon in a 4-2 defeat to Utah at George S. Eccles Tennis Center.
With Geller, ranked No. 12 in singles and No. 31 in doubles, out of the lineup on Sunday, Stanford's lineup looked different for the second consecutive match. In doubles, senior Sameer Kumar, who played with Geller in Thursday's victory over Cal Poly, played with freshman Sangeet Sridhar for the first time in doubles play. The duo came through for a 6-4 win at No. 2 following a Utah win at No. 1 doubles. It came down to a tiebreaker at No. 3, where freshman Alexandre Rotsaert and sophomore Timothy Sah fell, 6-7(2), to decide the point.
The Utes (16-8, 2-4 Pac-12) surged out to a 2-0 lead with a win by top player Dan Little at No. 1.
The Cardinal (13-5, 2-3 Pac-12) snapped Utah's momentum with convincing victories at No. 5 and No. 6. Sah stayed hot, posting his sixth consecutive dual victory in his first match at No. 5 this season. The sophomore earned a 6-3, 6-1 win over Utah's Mathias Gavelin. Sridhar followed with a 6-3, 6-2 triumph over Joe Woolley at No. 6.
Utah's David Micevski pulled out the win at No. 2, however, to pull the Utes within one point of the victory in the dual.
It came down to Kumar at No. 3 and Michael Genender at No. 4, with Stanford needing both of the matches. Genender won his first set against Russell Benkaim, 6-2, and led 5-3 in the second. Benkaim was able to hold off match point for Genender, eventually forcing a tiebreaker. He then pushed the match to three sets with a 7-3 win in in the tiebreaker.
Meanwhile, Kumar had dropped his first set to Slava Shainyan, 7-5, but pulled out a 6-4 second-set victory to force a decisive third set. With the dual over three hours long, Kumar took an early third-set lead over Shainyan.
However, back at No. 4, Benkaim continued his momentum against Genender. The Ute sophomore sealed the win with a 6-2 third-set victory.
Stanford is back in action next weekend, facing California on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Berkeley in the second edition of the Big Slam.
Utah 4, No. 12 Stanford 2
DOUBLES
1. Slava Shainyan/David Micevski (UTAH) d. Jack Barber/William Genesen (STAN) 6-3
2. Sameer Kumar/Sangeet Sridhar (STAN) d. Azat Hankuliyev/Dan Little (UTAH) 6-4
3. Russell Benkaim/Joe Woolley (UTAH) d. Alexandre Rotsaert/Timothy Sah (STAN) 7-6 (2)
Order of Finish: 1,2,3
SINGLES
1. No. 54 Dan Little (UTAH) d. No. 47 Alexandre Rotsaert (STAN) 6-3, 6-2
2. David Micevski (UTAH) d. No. 110 William Genesen (STAN) 6-4, 6-2
3. No. 78 Sameer Kumar (STAN) vs. Slava Shainyan (UTAH) 5-7, 6-4, 4-4, UNF
4. Russell Benkaim (UTAH) d. Michael Genender (STAN) 2-6, 7-6(3), 6-2
5. Timothy Sah (STAN) d. Mathias Gavelin (UTAH) 6-3, 6-1
6. Sangeet Sridhar (STAN) d. Joe Woolley (UTAH) 6-3, 6-2
Order of Finish: 1,5,6,2,4