NCAA men’s tennis: Arizona outlasts Clemson to advance to 4th straight Sweet 16, will host for first time

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For the fourth season in a row, Arizona got to host the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament and for the fourth straight time it will be playing in the Sweet 16. But instead of having to plan a road trip for the next round, the Wildcats will be staying in Tucson.

No. 8 seed Arizona beat Clemson 4-2 on Saturday afternoon in the second round at the LaNelle Robson Tennis Center, advancing to the second weekend for the fifth time in school history, and as a top-8 seed will host the Super Regional for the first time. The Wildcats (23-4) will face either No. 9 Oklahoma or USC next Friday or Saturday.

“To play the Super Regional here—we’ve had to go on the road (four) times—and we’ve lost heartbreakers. 4-3, 4-2, and we’ve been this close,” UA coach Clancy Shields said. “And to be able to do it on our home courts. I hope we can have the same crowd that we had. I mean, the energy was awesome, the band, everything. And so I’m just excited for next week. I want to celebrate this with the guys. We’re going to clean up some things, and let’s see if we can go punch our ticket to (the quarterfinals in) Athens. It’s been our goal the whole year.”

Unlike previous three years, when Arizona swept its first and second round matches, Clemson (17-13) was a much tougher out. The Wildcats took the doubles point but dropped a couple first sets in singles after all single-set victories in Friday’s first round 4-0 win over NAU.

“This Clemson team, they’re crazy strong,” said senior Jay Friend, who won 7-5, 6-2 at No. 1 singles. “It came down to the wire, and my heart just went a million miles an hour. But I’m so proud of the guys for getting it done today.”

Arizona was down or even early in all six singles matches, but the tide started to turn when Friend broke Clemson’s Viktor Markov at 5-5 in the first set. Around the same time, sophomore Zoran Ludoski rallied from down 4-1 to take the first set 7-5 at No. 4 and then sophomore Matthias Uwe Kask bounced back from a break to win a first-set tiebreaker at No. 6.

Kask, who was pressed into duty this weekend when Gilb Sekachov fell ill, then won his second set 6-0 to put the Wildcats up 3-2.