Men’s tennis dominates Tulsa 7-0

By Nikki Spellman

Published Mar 7, 2020

Sander Jong celebrates point. Photo courtesy of TCU Men’s Tennis Twitter.

No. 8 TCU men’s tennis picked up their seventh-straight win against Tulsa in a 7-0 sweep Friday night.

“I was very proud of the way our guys came out in the doubles,” head coach David Roditi said.

Bertus Kruger and Luc Fomba show some love to each other. Photo courtesy of Go Frogs.

TCU took the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 2. It was the eleventh time this season the Horned Frogs have won the first point of the match.

The No. 55-ranked pairing of Sander Jong and Tadeas Paroulek played at the No. 1 position for the second time this season, defeating the No. 61 ranked pairing of Connor Di Marco and Kody Pearson, 6-2.

The win is Jong and Paroulek’s first victory of the season over a ranked pairing.

Luc Fomba and Bertus Kruger moved up to the No. 2 position, where they swept their opponent to clinch the doubles point for TCU.

“Quick win at No. 2, then controlling it at No. 1,” head coach David Roditi said. “We had a different lineup and our guys handled it well.”

Singles play was dominated by TCU as they won all six matches, with only one reaching a third set.

The first singles point came from No. 119 Jacob Fearnley at the No. 5 position after defeating his opponent 6-1, 6-1.

TCU won three singles matches over the course of two minutes as Jong, Kruger, and Fomba all finished out their matches strong.

Jong collected his seventh straight singles win at the No. 4 position, defeating Di Marco 6-3, 6-2.

Shortly after, Kruger clinched the match once again for the Frogs, as he defeated his opponent 6-2, 6-3.

At the No. 1 position, recently named No. 30 Alastair Gray took on No. 61 Kody Pearson. Gray took the opening set 6-4, but fell in the second set 1-6. Moments later, he recollected himself and took down Pearson 10-6 in a superset.

The win is Gray’s sixth of the year over a ranked opponent. He is now 7-2 in singles play and 6-1 against ranked opponents.

TCU took the match against Tulsa after No. 105 Paroulek finished his match 7-5, 7-5.

“We didn’t let up in singles,” Roditi said. “Just because they’re not ranked doesn’t mean they’re not a good team. They beat us last year and our guys wanted revenge.”

TCU finishes off their homestand at 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon against No. 43 Tulane.

“Sunday is going to be a great match,” Roditi said.