Men's Tennis Falters in Spring Opener at Penn

Saturday, January 29

Levy Courts

10:00 a.m.

Drexel University

Penn

Men's Tennis Falters in Spring Opener at Penn

1/29/2011 1:37:51 PM | Men's Tennis

Philadelphia - Manu Bajpai turned in a straight-set victory at second singles to account for Drexel's lone point in a 6-1 loss to Penn in the team's first match of the 2011 spring season. It was the Dragons' first dual match loss of the year, dropping them to 2-1 overall. Bryan Nguyen and Skyler Davis picked up a win at second doubles, but the Quakers took the other two doubles matches to claim the team point.

Bajpai used a big serve combined with a number of punishing forehand shots to make quick work of his opponent, Eugene Brazdil in a 6-2 victory in the first set. Brazdil kept it close in the second set, but fell victim to a number of service errors, which allowed Bajpai to play aggressively in a 6-4 victory to clinch the match at second singles.

Rookie Skyler Davis also turned in a solid performance on the day, teaming with Bryan Nguyen for the team's only doubles victory and taking his opponent, Zach Gorn, to three hottly contested sets. Davis fell 7-5 in the opener, gutted out a 7-4 win in the second-set tiebreaker before Gorn pried the victory away with a 10-8 win in the superset clincher.

The Dragons will be back in action next Friday, when they travel to play at Temple at noon.

Match Results
Penn 6, Drexel 1

Doubles
Hicham Laalej/Eugene Brazdil def. Nikoloz Kurdadze/Manu Bajpai, 8-6
Bryan Nguyen/Skyler Davis def. Phil Law/Nikola Kocovic, 8-6
Mark Milbrandt/Zach Gorn def. Mehdi Rhazali/Joey Wayne, 8-2

Singles
Hicham Laalej def. Nikoloz Kurdadze 6-1, 6-2
Manu Bajpai def. Eugene Brazdil 6-2, 6-4
Phil Law def. Bryan Nguyen 6-2, 6-0
Nikola Kocovic def. Mehdi Rhazali 6-0, 6-0
Zach Gorn def. Skyler Davis 7-5, 6-7 (4-7), 10-8
Mark Milbrandt def. Joey Wayne 6-0, 6-0