April 18, 2009
The Purdue men's tennis team was beaten 7-0 by No. 33 Minnesota on Saturday at the Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis, Minn.
Purdue (7-14, 1-8) lost two of the three doubles matches to lose the initial point. Adam Altepeter and Dino Bilankov gave the Gophers an early lead by defeating sophomore Eric Ramos and junior Paul Foley 8-2 at No. 3. The point was clinched when Ishay Hadas and Sebastian Gallego beat junior Slavko Bijelica and senior Griff Nienberg 8-5 at the No. 1 position. The Boilermakers avoided the sweep as juniors Branko Kuzmanovic and P.J. Rose extended their winning streak to five with an 8-6 defeat of Julian Dehn and Tobias Wernet at No. 2.
Minnesota (18-6, 6-3) didn't slow down as the match moved to singles. Wernet, the 80th-ranked singles player in the NCAA, earned the first singles victory by defeating Kuzmanovic 6-3, 6-0 at No. 2. 62nd-ranked Hadas upended Bijelica 6-4, 6-3 at No. 1. The match was clinched when Dehn ended Nienberg's two-match winning streak with a 6-3, 7-6 victory at No. 6.
The final three singles matches each required three sets, but ultimately ended just like the first three. Bilankov posted a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 win over Rose at No. 4 before Gallego ended his 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 defeat of Ramos at No. 3. The final match to be decided was the closest of the day. At No. 5, Phillip Arndt defeated freshman Roberto Cabrini 7-5, 5-7, 1-0 (7).
Purdue wraps up its regular season Sunday at No. 63 Iowa. The Boilermakers and Hawkeyes are set to square off at 1 p.m. ET from the Hawkeye Recreation and Tennis Complex.