The Ohio State men’s tennis team kicked off the 2003 dual season in impressive fashion Wednesday with clean 7-0 sweeps of both Toledo and Butler at the Jesse Owens West Recreation Center.
In the day’s first matches, the Buckeyes lost only one doubles match before reeling off victories the rest of the morning. That loss came when the duo of juniors Conor Casey and Jeremy Wurtzman lost to the Rockets’ Dipesh Rao and Todd Wotjkowski 9-7.
“We really should have had that,” Wurtzman said. “We had triple match point, but couldn’t get it done.”
The two tandems held their serve for most of the match, but Rao and Wotjkowski were able to break Casey’s serve in the 15th game to take a 8-7 lead. Wotjkowski held his serve in the final game to give Toledo the win.
That would be all the success the Rockets had the rest of the day. In the other doubles matches, OSU freshmen Scott Green and Ross Wilson handed Khalid Al Nabhani and Freddy Gomez an 8-4 decision, while junior Brenton Contini and senior co-captain Vince Ng breezed by Cassio Salge and Tony Tran 8-1.
“It was nice to get out there again,” Ng said. “It was my first real match in about two weeks and it just felt good to get some of the match rust off.”
Wurtzman, who is ranked a school record No. 7 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association preseason poll rankings, earned a little revenge on Rao during their singles match later in the morning. Rao started off the match quickly, breaking Wurtzman’s serve and taking a 3-0 lead in the first set. Wurtzman held his serve at 3-1, but then was broken again as Rao took a 4-2 lead.
“I was a little down from the doubles match,” Wurtzman said. “But he came out on fire. He was hitting big forehands, one right after another.”
After Rao and Wurtzman both held their serve, Wurtzman began to take advantage of Rao’s mistakes. Facing defeat at 5-2, Wurtzman won four straight games to take a 6-5 lead.
“I played him last year, so I knew what he was going to bring,” Wurtzman said. “Once I got into a rhythm, I was able to dictate the pace and cruise.”
Wurtzman finished out the first set with a 7-6 win and had little problem in a 6-1 second set victory.
While Wurtzman was battling with Rao, Ng — who is ranked No. 45 in the preseason rankings — was having an easier time with Al Nabhani. The senior started off quickly, trading shot for shot with the baseliner Al Nabhani.
“He’s a pretty solid player,” Ng said. “He’s a baseliner and that’s the type of players I like to play against because it gets me in a good rhythm.”
Ng breezed through the match with a 6-2, 6-1 victory. Coupled with a victory over Butler’s Kevin Gill in the afternoon, Ng now needs just 16 singles victories to become OSU’s all-time leader in career wins.
In the other single matches against Toledo, freshman Dennis Mertens began his collegiate career with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Wotjkowski, while Casey and Contini also had victories.
The Buckeyes kept their momentum going during the afternoon session. Unlike in the morning, OSU did not lose a single match against the Bulldogs. Along with Ng, Wurtzman, Mertens, Casey, Wilson and Green all had singles victories.
OSU is back in action Sunday when it faces Notre Dame at noon.
