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Tennessee Advances to Second Straight NCAA Final Four

Thursday afternoon, freshman Shunsuke Mitsui prevailed in a three-set fight on court four to advance the Tennessee men’s tennis team to the NCAA Semifinals for the second straight season with a 4-3 victory against third-ranked Baylor.

Despite losing the opening set to Baylor’s Finn Bass, Mitsui won the second set by tiebreak to force a decisive third set. Mitsui broke Bass to take a 2-1 lead in the third set, but Bass broke back to even the score at 4-4. Mitsui held serve once more after breaking in the ninth game of the third set, advancing Tennessee (26-7) to the national semifinals for the eighth time in program history.

Baylor’s (29-4) 2022 dual season concludes with two of its four losses being against Tennessee. Tennessee gained an early 1-0 advantage by claiming the doubles point with victories on courts two and three. Tennessee’s combination of Emile Hudd and Shunsuke Mitsui defeated Baylor’s ninth-ranked combo of Juampi Mazzuchi and Matsusuke Soto, 6-1, on court two, after Baylor had won on court one.

Johannus Monday and Mark Wallner defeated Adrian Boitan and Tadeus Paroulek 6-4 in doubles play on court three. Monday and Wallner were behind early, 0-2; but, they fought back and eventually tied the game at 2-all. The UT duo broke serve at 4-3 and rode this momentum to a 6-4 triumph.

 

 

Written by Andres Soto

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