Michael Shipma
Sports Editor
The Troy men’s tennis team snapped a five-match losing streak by defeating UT-Chattanooga on Friday and Jacksonville State on Sunday.
The Trojans won both matches on the road, topping Chattanooga 4-0 before winning 4-3 in Jacksonville. The team now looks forward to a three-match home stand and will play those in as many days this weekend.
The Men of Troy were unstoppable on Friday against the Mocs, refusing to concede any matches, whether in doubles or singles play. A number of matches went unfinished with every match that was played to its fullest resulting in a Trojan win.
Troy’s Pablo Moreno and Mustapha Belcora got things started with a convincing 6-1 win over UTC’s Lucas Plesky and Simon Bustamante. Andy Lau and Amer Bedwan followed suit with a 6-3 decision of their own. The third and final doubles match of the day featured the Trojans’ Andre Baldo and Hassan Ndayishimiye whose match went unfinished with the score tied at 4-4.
Singles play wasn’t as close, however, as Bedwan, Moreno and Lau all won their respective matches in two sets. The other three singles matches went unfinished.
The win snapped a Troy losing-streak dating back to Jan. 20, with the last Trojan win before that coming against Sun Belt rival South Alabama on Jan. 15.
Two days later, the Trojans returned to their home state to take on a Gamecocks team that had lost three of its last four matches.
Troy won the day in come-from-behind fashion, winning four of six singles matches after losing two matches in doubles competition.
It was a slow start to the day for the Trojans as Baldo and Ndayishimiye dropped their match 6-3. Filip Mansson and Austin Racine followed suit, losing their set 6-2 to JSU’s Andres Gomez and Mathias Chaim.
The singles portion of the day was a much different story, however, as the Trojans picked up four wins on the road. Bedwan and Belcora both needed three sets to earn wins, while Lau and Moreno improved their overall records with wins in two sets. Most notably, the freshman Bedwan improved his singles record to 7-0.
Troy’s only two singles losses required three sets each to be decided.
The Trojans return to action on Friday when they take on Winthrop. It will be the first of three weekend home matches for the Trojans as they play New Orleans on Sunday and USC-Upstate on Monday.
