Jan. 12, 2013
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue men's tennis team kicked off the 2013 season with a dominant win over the Toledo Rockets. The Boilermakers used the momentum from an exciting doubles point to dominate in singles.
Purdue (1-0) clinched the match when Mark Kovacs completed a 6-3, 6-1 victory at No. 2 over Francisco Stuardo. Kovacs started a little bit slow in the first set, but found his rhythm and cruised in the second set after taking a 3-0 lead. Kovacs improves to 1-0 on the season and likely has two matches left today.
The morning started with a closely contested doubles match. Kovacs and Pawel Poziomski gave the Boilermakers a quick 1-0 lead with an 8-2 victory at No. 3. The Purdue paid defeated Grant Adams and Stuardo. The other two matches, however, were much closer and neither had a lead larger than two games until the end. Tomas Stillman and Nicky Wong rallied late to gain control of the match and eventually won, 8-5.
The doubles point would come down to the match at No. 2, a match that Purdue led early, but Toledo stormed back to tie at six. With the score knotted within two games of the doubles point, the Rockets served and were up 40-15. However, Krisztian Krocsko turned up his game. The senior used overpowering forehands to put turn the pressure on. That led to a couple unforced errors and a tied score at 40-40. With the new `no ad rule' in effect, Krocsko elected to receive the serve, instead of his partner Szymon Tatarczyk, and hit a return winner down the middle. Krocsko then served for the win giving the Boilermakers the 8-6 victory and the doubles point.
In singles, Aaron Dujovne made quick work of his opponent and fellow Chilean Roberto Meza. Dujovne took the match at No. 5, 6-1, 6-0, to give Purdue the 2-0 lead. Krocsko finished soon after with a controlled victory of his own. The Budapest, Hungary native took down Ben Brocker, 6-0, 6-3, at No. 6.
After Kovacs clinched the match, Diego Acosta defended his No. 118 ranking in the country. The sophomore won in straight sets over Adams, 6-3, 6-4, to give the Boilermakers a 5-0 lead. Poziomski put together a nice come-from-behind win at No. 4. The senior dropped the first set to Wong, 2-6. From there, though, Poziomski found his groove. He blanked Wong in the second set, 6-0, before hanging on for a 6-3 win in the third to bring the Boilers one match from the shutout. Tatarczyk capped off the team's perfect score with a 6-3, 6-3 win at the top spot over Stillman.
The Boilermakers improve to 9-0 all-time against the Rockets and have now won eight in a row in the series.
The Boilermakers continue their opening day triple header with a 2 p.m. match against Butler. Live results, video, and an interactive blog can be found at PurdueSports.com.