April 24, 2010
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue men's tennis team was defeated 5-2 by 35th-ranked Minnesota on Saturday afternoon on the Basham Courts inside the Schwartz Tennis Center.
"We competed well and played hard today," head coach Pawel Gajdzik said. "We definitely improved from yesterday and continued to play solidly in doubles. It was good to see Slavko (Bijelica) and Eric (Ramos) win in singles. Hopefully this will generate some momentum for us heading into the Big Ten Tournament. I appreciate all of the fans coming out and supporting us on senior day."
Purdue (11-14, 1-9 Big Ten) dropped the doubles point for the first time in five matches as Minnesota (12-9, 5-4) claimed two of the three contests. Senior P.J. Rose and junior Eric Ramos opened the match with an 8-4 defeat of Julian Dehn and Dino Bilankov at No. 2. The Golden Gophers earned an 8-3 win at No. 3 as Tobias Wernet and Rok Bonin outscored senior Paul Foley and freshman Billy Heuer to turn all attention to the match at No. 1. Sebastian Gallego and Philip Arndt, the 50th-ranked doubles duo in the NCAA, got behind early but managed an 8-5 win over seniors Slavko Bijelica and Branko Kuzmanovic.
The Golden Gophers were able to claim the match by winning four singles contests. Wernet, the 112th-ranked singles player in the NCAA, earned a 6-2, 6-1 win over Kuzmanovic at No. 2, and 64th-ranked Gallego took a 6-3, 6-3 decision from Rose at No. 1. Ardnt clinched the win for Minnesota with his 6-0, 6-0 win over Foley at No. 5, and Ruddock added a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Heuer at No. 6.
Ramos provided Purdue its first point of the match and finished the Big Ten season with a 5-5 conference mark. The Alameda, Calif., native was preparing for a third set at No. 4 with Bilankov after winning the first 6-1 and dropping the second 4-6 when Bilankov retired due to an injury. Ramos, who also won five conference matches as a freshman, tied his career high for single-season Big Ten victories.
Bijelica ended the match with a 6-3, 6-4 defeat of Bonin at No. 3 after storming out to a 5-0 lead in the first set. The Novi Sad, Serbia, native closed his playing career at the Schwartz Tennis Center with consecutive singles wins to bring his 2009-10 total to 15, which is the highest number of his career. His 17 doubles victories also are a career high, bettering the total of nine he put up in each of his first two seasons.
Purdue finished the season with the third-highest home win total in program history. The Boilermakers were 9-5 at the Schwartz Tennis Center, which matches the mark put up in 1997 and 2002 and trails only the 12 wins earned by the 1984 and 1987 teams.
The Boilermakers now turn their focus to the Big Ten Tournament. Purdue opens play Thursday against a yet-to-be determined opponent in Bloomington, Ind.