Arizona men’s tennis passed its first test in the NCAA Championships without facing much resistance. The Wildcats’ next match won’t be any sort of walkover.
No. 10 seed Arizona defeated Denver 4-0 on Friday afternoon in Tucson to set up a second round match with Harvard, a team that UA coach Clancy Shields said is every bit as talented as the Wildcats. The Crimson defeated Washington 4-0 and will face Arizona at 1 p.m. PST on Saturday at LaNelle Robson Tennis Center.
Arizona (25-4) shook off a slow start in doubles on the way to sweeping the Pioneers on a warm afternoon. The UA’s nationally-ranked doubles pair of Colton Smith and Inaki Cabrera-Bello fell behind 3-0 in their game, then rallied back to win 6-4.
“It was good that we were able to settle and start putting it together,” Smith said.
Arizona picked up a 6-3 win from Casper Christensen and Filip Gustafsson on the third doubles court, while Jay Friend and Eric Padgham’s game went unfinished at 5-5.
Shields said Arizona will need to pick up its play in doubles if it wants to win the point against Harvard.
“We’ve got to level up tomorrow and be better,” said Shields. “This is the weird thing in sports. It’s just a natural thing, I don’t want to say lower your level through your competition but if, per se you do, you play to the level of your competition.
“You kind of raise it when you need to. I’m hoping that we raise our level tomorrow because we’re going to really need that.”
Arizona’s talent overwhelmed Denver on Saturday, with the Wildcats sweeping singles points on the second, third, and fifth courts. Friend, the No. 6 singles player in the nation, put together a clinic on the second court, defeating his opponent 6-0, 6-3.
“We all got to hot starts,” said Friend. “A lot of breaks, a lot of first sets. I mean (we won) all first six sets. I’m proud of what we did. It’s always tough to beat a team you should beat.”
Arizona’s other singles wins came from No. 103 Zoran Ludoski and Alexander Rozin, who both won in straight sets.
Smith, an All-American who has competed in professional tournaments throughout the spring, led 6-2, 5-3 at the time the match was clinched. Smith is the No. 5 singles player in college and is ranked No. 161 in the world by the ATP.
On multiple occasions Smith interacted with the crowd, getting the couple hundred fans in attendance to provide some vocal support.
“They pay to come watch so you kind of put on a show,” said Smith. “Trying to make it entertaining as much as possible for them.”
Arizona is hosting the NCAAs for the third year in a row under Shields. The last two seasons both ended in the Sweet 16.
“Nine years when I took this job we were just dreaming being in the NCAA Tournament,” said Shields. “And then five years ago we were dreaming of winning a round in the NCAA Tournament.
“I’ll never lose sight of how far we’ve come. Now that we’re in the moment, I think everybody here wants to do something bigger.”