March 2, 2011
WACO, Texas - The Purdue men's tennis team fell to the 28th-ranked Baylor Bears, 7-0, Wednesday afternoon at the Baylor Tennis Center in Waco, Texas.
"It was good for us to play outdoors for the first time," head coach Pawel Gajdzik said. "Give credit to Baylor. They definitely have been playing outdoors and you could see that in their game. For us, it was good to freshen up on that style of play and it will be good preparation for the upcoming weekend."
Baylor (6-2) got off to a hot start and set the tone in doubles play. John Peers and Dennis Lengsfeld took down Krisztian Krocsko and Mark Kovacs, 8-3, at No. 1. Shortly after, Sergio Ramirez and Jordan Rux topped Szymon Tatarczyk and Eric Ramos, 8-2, at No. 2. Kike Grangeiro and Julian Bley completed the doubles sweep with an 8-3 win over Pawel Poziomski and Aaron Dujovne at No. 3. The sweep is just the second time this season the Boilermakers have failed to win a doubles match.
The Bears continued to show why they are highly ranked in singles play. Grangeiro, ranked 91st nationally, was first to finish with a 6-2, 6-1 over Ramos at No. 5. Next, Rux handed Dujovne his first loss of the season, 6-0, 6-1, at No. 4.
Ramirez clinched the win over Purdue (6-3) with a victory over Krocsko at No. 2, 6-1, 6-3. Bley increased the lead to 5-0 with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Poziomski at No. 6. Tatarczyk fought hard at No. 1 against Peers, the 22nd-ranked player in the country, but fell, 7-5, 6-3. Kovacs was the only Boilermaker to win a set with a 7-6 victory in the first at No. 1, but fell in a tiebreak, 6-7 (3), 6-3, 1-0 (8).
"It was one of those matches where Mark Kovacs was in it the whole time," Gajdzik said. "He showed that he deserves to be playing against some of the best players in the country. He played his game, but at the end it just got a little bit away from him."
The Boilermakers fall to 0-1 all-time against Baylor. They also drop to 1-2 on the season against ranked teams.
Purdue returns to action when they take part in the HEB Tournament on Friday and Saturday in Corpus Christi, Texas. Action begins at 10 a.m. ET from the HEB Tennis Center.