Altamonte Springs, Fla. – The Washington University in St. Louis men's tennis team closed out the UAA Championships on Saturday with a big 5-4 victory over No. 11 Emory University in the third-place match.
WashU improves to 14-9 on the year and will next await a potential berth into the NCAA Tournament.
The Bears started slow, falling behind early after dropping two of the three doubles matches. WashU got its lone point following another big victory at No. 2 doubles from Jeremy Ouyang/Scott Yamamoto, who pulled out an 8-7 win, claiming the tiebreaker by a score of 7-2.
In singles play, Emory pushed ahead 3-1 after winning at No.1 singles, but the Bears bounced back after Jared Phillips posted another straight-set win at No. 5 singles, winning 6-0, 6-4 to cut the team score deficit back down to 3-2.
The Bears tied it up following James Shaheen's second consecutive win at No. 6 singles, earning a 6-4, 6-2 win as WashU looked to close out the match with big performances in singles.
Emory led 4-3 after a win at No. 3 singles, but the Bears refused to go down. Gaurav Singh kept the Bears alive with a massive 7-6, (2), 6-3 win at No. 4 singles, as the deciding match went down to No. 2 singles.
After dropping the opening set 7-5, Daniel Li bounced back in an impressive manner, posting 6-2, 6-1 set victories in the final two sets to give the Bears the comeback victory and a third-place finish at the UAA Championship.
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Singles competition
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1. Antonio Mora (EUM) def. Abhi Ramireddy (WASHUM) 6-2, 6-2
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2. Daniel Li (WASHUM) def. Andrew Esses (EUM) 5-7, 6-2, 6-1
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3. Nolan Shah (EUM) def. Luke Smith (WASHUM) 6-1, 6-0
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4. Gaurav Singh (WASHUM) def. Santiago Suarez (EUM) 7-6 (7-2), 6-3
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5. Jared Phillips (WASHUM) def. Sujay Sharma (EUM) 6-0, 6-4
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6. James Shaheen (WASHUM) def. Sahil Raina (EUM) 6-4, 6-2
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Match Notes
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Emory University 8-10; National ranking #11
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WashU Men 14-9; National ranking #6
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Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (1,5,6,3,4,2)
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