Hide Article Text (OCR)
Razorback tennis team downs TU, eyes IndoorBy GRANT HALL Times Sports EditorArkansas' tennis team tuned up for this weekend's National Indoor Singles and Doubles Championships at Houston by handling Tulsa 7-2 Tuesday night at the UA IndoorComplex.Bobby Blair and Joey Blake will compete in the singles at Houston, while Tim Siegel and Richard Schmidt will play doubles. Blair, a late invitee to the 32-man singles field at Houston, sat out Tuesday's match in order to rest a sore shoulder.As a result, each Hog played one notch higher in the singles order. Only freshman Brad Williams of Australia lost for Arkansas in singles. At No. 3 doubles, where Blair normally plays, Arkansas’ Danny Granot and Mike Coleman were defeated.“I’m not disappointed at all,’’ UA coach Ron Hightower said. “It was not what I wanted; I wanted a clean performance, with everyone feeling«ood. But we learned more from /illiams losing than if he’d won a close match. He’s gotta adjust to the scoring. He has a ton of potential.’’Williams, who lost three 3-3 points under the no-ad system of college scoring, said, “That no-deuce rule is a pretty rough rule for someone who hasn’t played it — especially on your serve. On one, I got a first serve in and he (Richard Alexander) blasted a backhand return by me for the game.’’Hightower added, “It’s like the old nine-point tiebreaker, every game. You used to have a cushion at deuce.”Alexander, a lefty, beat Williams 6-3,7-6 at No. 4 singles.“He pulled off some lucky shots at the right time,” Williams said. “I didn’t play too well. That’s the way it goes, first match.”Told that Alexander had looked like Tulsa's best player, Williams shrugged and said, “Maybe he doesn't play that way all the time. I started off pretty nervous. I didn’t serve well, aidn’t return well, didn’t do much right. In the second set I had a lot of break points and should have won it.”Williams resisted a match point in the 12th game to get into the tiebreaker, and in the tiebreaker he turned a 4-5 deficit into a 6-5 lead before losing the lingering-death affair 8-6, as Alexander simply came up with the shots he had to make.Siegel, who beat Lane Wilson 6-2, 6-1 at No. 3, said, “A win is a win. Tulsa is a hard team to play. Brad will come around, no problem. Our No. 2 doubles team lt;Blake-Williams) might be one of the best No Is in the country. ’'Blake and Williams hammered Barry Mills and Bob Sweeney 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2 doubles, in iust slightly longer a time than it took Siegel ana Schmidt to blitz Wilson ana Alexander 6-2,6-2 at No. 1 doubles.In fact, the entire match was over by 9:48p.m. — a modern UA record.Siegel and Schmidt, playing as if they nad a plane to catch, delighted a representative crowd with their bubbly play. In one two-point sequence, they crossed six times during the points.On the next to last point of the match, Siegel zoomed halfway across the next court to retrieve an overhead smash while Schmidt yelled, “Go go go,” only to have Schmidt hit the next ball into the net. Siegelplayfully threw the other ball at nispartner.Schmidt, that rare bird in college tennis who says “good shot” and“that's pretty” to his opponent, moved up to No. 1 singles and beat Mills 6-1,6-3.Blake pounded Brad Huff 6-2, 6-2 at No. 2.Simon Robinson downed Robert Boag 6-3, 6-3 at No. 5, and Granot beat Ola Hoglund 6-4,6-2 at No. 6 “It was nice to win comfortably at No. 5 and No. 6,” Hightower noted.About Williams, Hightower said, He’s losing too many points off return of serve, but the guy (Alex-ander)played a good match.* Hightower also said, “Our No. 1 and 2 doubles were real strong. AtNo. 3 we had a new team ana got whipped. We were just not ready to go. Mike (Coleman) is up and down. He (and Schmidt) beat a top-25 doubles team from Kansas Friday night but tonight he loses to Tulsa’s No. 3 team.”Coleman and Granot lost to Huff and Hoglund, 6-3,6-4.Coleman might have had a chance to play singles, but he had a test that didn’t end until 6 p.m. The match started at 5.It was Tulsa’s first match of the semester. Arkansas advanced to 2-0.Among the crowd were former Hog Chip Hooper and current UA basketball player Scott Rose — who between them had two good feet.Hooper, winner of the 1981 collegiate National Indoor, underwent bone spur surgery Dec. 2 on his big toe and will be in Fayetteville the next two to four weeks Rose, who sprained an ankle Monday in practice, said he would miss the twofames this week (TCU tonight, exas Saturday afternoon) and didn’t know after that. But he said, “It’s not bad.”Hooper described his injury as “Astro-toe extraordinaire. I got it playing. They cut the bone out of thejoint.Asked about this year’s tennis team, Hooper said, “I like ’em. They could be good. ’Tower needs to work ’em some more Some of them don’t play well enough yet. But generally speaking, they re good They’re just young. Tower is a great coach He got me here.”Hightower, who before he became the UA coach also helped recruit Peter Doohan, has infused the Hogs with a totally positive approach. Even the Hurricane players had kind words for him after the match, and he told them in turn, “Good luck You guys are gentlemen. ’ ’A tout the National Indoor this weekend, Hightower said, This tournament is like the individual and doubles part of the NCAA. Only the best players will be there Blake won his regional to qualify. The reason Blair didn t get in earlier is that he didn’t play in his regional qualifying tournament“This will be good for Joey because it will give us a chance to have four individuals invited to the NCAA Tournament this spring if he can win It’s also important for Tim and Richard, because they think they can win the NCAA doubles championship. If they do well this weekend, it will help their seeding at the NCAA.”Said Siegel, “We’re going for it. Siegel said he doesn’t even think atouthis sprained ankle anymore.The rest of the Razorbacks are off until the Wal-Mart Classic at Fayetteville, Feb. 13-16 Next weekend is huge,” said Siegel. “We play three Top 20 teams Trinity Friday night iFeD 14), Tennessee Saturday and Northeast Louisiana Sunday.”Make plans now It should be one of the better shows in town.
Newspaper Details
Fayetteville Northwest Arkansas Times
Fayetteville, Arkansas, US
Wed, Feb 05, 1986
Page 13
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
AR, USA 03 Dec 2018
Other Publications Near Fayetteville, Arkansas
Fayetteville Democrat
Fayetteville Daily
Fayetteville Northwest Arkansas Times
Northwest Arkansas Times
Fayetteville Daily Democrat
