Men's Tennis Earns Pivotal Win at Stanford

Friday, March 29

Stanford, CA

3:00 PM

UCLA

Stanford

Men's Tennis Earns Pivotal Win at Stanford

March 29, 2019 | Men's Tennis

Box Score

STANFORD, Calif. – The No. 19 UCLA men's tennis team picked up a signature win Friday afternoon, defeating No. 10 Stanford 4-2 at the Taube Family Tennis Center. The win marked the Bruins' fifth in a row and halted the Cardinal's run at seven straight.

Maxime Cressy delivered the clinching point on Court 1 for UCLA (9-4, 2-0), capping a big day for the senior. He also teamed with Keegan Smith to claim the doubles point with a tiebreaking victory on the top court. Smith also went on to record a singles victory. Ben Goldberg added the third UCLA singles win. Sameer Kumar and Timothy Sah posted wins for Stanford (12-3, 2-1).

Here's match point that won it for Cressy and the Bruins! pic.twitter.com/UM78G5AUhU
— UCLA Men's Tennis (@uclatennis) March 30, 2019

The doubles point looked unattainable for UCLA, which faced 0-3 deficits on Courts 1 and 3. While the Cardinal tandem of Kumar and Sah continued on to a 6-2 defeat of Bruins Bryce Pereira and Patrick Zahraj on Court 3, Cressy and Smith clawed back up top.

UCLA knotted things up on Court 2, where the tandem of Govind Nanda and Connor Rapp defeated Jack Barber and William Genesen 6-4 for its first win of the campaign.

Backed by Nanda-Rapp's win, 36th-ranked Cressy-Smith went to a tiebreaker against No. 43 Axel Geller-Alexandre Rotsaert. The Bruins jumped out to a 3-1 lead, only to have the Cardinal combination send the teams back to their benches at 3-3. Cressy-Smith regrouped and recovered, though, securing an 8-6 win—their seventh without a loss.

Ben Goldberg earned a big break of serve against Sangeet Sridhar on Court 5, helping UCLA to an ever-important four first-set wins. Goldberg took his first set by a 6-3 score and took his game to another level in the second, blanking the Cardinal freshman in the second.

Next off was No. 80 Smith, who recorded a straight-set win of his own 6-2, 6-4 against 33rd-ranked Rotsaert on Court 2. The victory marked the Bruin sophomore's third in a row and highest-ranked of the season.

Trailing 3-0, the Cardinal seized wins on Courts 6 and 4 to momentarily steer momentum in its direction. Sah defeated No. 100 Tsolakyan, who nearly pushed his Cardinal counterpart to a third set before falling by a 6-2, 7-5 score. No. 61 Kumar lived up to his ranking on Court 4, where he snapped Zahraj's two-match winning streak with a 6-3, 6-3 victory to make it 3-2.

Any momentum Stanford had at that point was quickly stopped by Cressy. The senior took a back-and-forth first set from eighth-ranked Geller before closing it out with a 6-4 second stanza. The 7-5, 6-4 win marked the first top-10 victory of Cressy's career.

UCLA will look for a Bay Area sweep Saturday, when it visits No. 40 California. First serve from the Hellman Tennis Complex is scheduled for 2 p.m.

Tennis Match Results
UCLA vs Stanford
3/29/2019 at Stanford, CA
(Taube Family Tennis Center)

#19 UCLA 4, #10 Stanford 2

Singles competition
1. #92 Maxime Cressy (UCLA) def. #8 Axel Geller (STAN) 7-5, 6-4
2. #80 Keegan Smith (UCLA) def. #33 Alexandre Rotsaert (STAN) 6-2, 6-4
3. #60 William Genesen (STAN) vs. #35 Govind Nanda (UCLA) 6-7 (8-10), 2-2, unfinished
4. #61 Sameer Kumar (STAN) def. Patrick Zahraj (UCLA) 6-3, 6-3
5. Ben Goldberg (UCLA) def. Sangeet Sridhar (STAN) 6-3, 6-0
6. Timothy Sah (STAN) def. #100 Mathew Tsolakyan (UCLA) 6-2, 7-5

Doubles competition
1. #36 Maxime Cressy/Keegan Smith (UCLA) def. #43 Axel Geller/Alexandre Rotsaert (STAN) 7-6 (8-6)
2. Govind Nanda/Connor Rapp (UCLA) def. Jack Barber/William Genesen (STAN) 6-4
3. Sameer Kumar/Timothy Sah (STAN) def. Bryce Pereira/Patrick Zahraj (UCLA) 6-2