Tiebreaks Bite Dawgs In 4-3 Loss To ASU

SEATTLE – Tiebreakers turned into heartbreakers today for the Husky men's tennis team, as it lost a 4-3 home match to Arizona State in its second-to-last home match of the season. The Dawgs dropped a tiebreaker to lose the doubles point, then had third set tiebreak losses at the top two singles spots to swing three points to the Sun Devils.
 
The Huskies (15-9, 2-5 Pac-12) got singles wins from Ewen Lumsden, Han-Chih Lin, and Cesar Bouchelaghem, but the tiebreak losses at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots for Clement Chidekh and Jack Davis, and a loss at No. 6 singles from Nedim Suko, decided things.
 
"I'm sad, disappointed, furious, all of those emotions," said Head Coach Matt Anger. "There was good tennis, there's no doubt about that. There were things we can blame ourselves for, certainly we did not play good tiebreakers today. We could have had three more points on the board if we were solid in the tiebreakers. But I'm also upset by the way things were officiated, and all these frustrations, none of them really matter if you win, but they loom large when you lose and that's why it's so upsetting."
 
Lumsden came through with a 6-1, 7-5 win at No. 3 singles over Jacob Bullard and then Cesar Bouchelaghem had a 7-6 (3), 6-4 win at No. 5 over Nicola Cigna to put the Huskies up 2-1.
 
But Arizona State's Christian Lerby earned a 7-5, 6-4 win at No. 6 over Nedim Suko, and then Clement Chidekh suffered his first dual match loss of the year at No. 1 singles to 20th-ranked Murphy Cassone. Chidekh won the first set, 7-5, but lost the second set, 1-6. The two stayed on serve until 5-5 when Chidekh got broken. Cassone was serving up 40-0, but Chidekh saved all three match points and then won the deciding point to get into the tiebreak, but Cassone came back with a 7-3 breaker win.
 
Han-Chih Lin then tied the match back up at 3-3 as he pulled out a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 win at No. 4 over George Stoupe.
 
Things wound up on court two, where Jack Davis saved a match point at 5-6 in the third set to force a tiebreak, but he couldn't get on track in the breaker and wound up dropping a 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (2) final to 125th-ranked Fabien Salle.
 
Doubles unfortunately started what turned into a theme for the Dawgs. Cesar Bouchelaghem and Han-Chih Lin had a routine 6-2 win on court three, but Jack Davis and Ewen Lumsden saw their three-match win streak snapped, as ASU broke serve at 4-5 to win, 4-6, on court one.
 
At second doubles, Chidekh and Suko saved break points to go up 5-2, but Lerby and Stoupe of ASU fought back and took it to a tiebreak, where they built a 5-1 lead. But Chidekh and Suko earned five points in a row to suddenly have match point. ASU saved it, and then another at 7-6, before going up and converting their own match point chance for the 9-7 win. That put the Huskies in the 0-1 hole overall.
 
Washington will try to fight back and get another chance at a top-15 team on Sunday, when No. 13 Arizona comes in for UW's Senior Day. First serve for that match is 12 noon.
 
 
Washington Men's Tennis
April 15, 2022
Bill Quillian Stadium | Seattle, Wash.
 
#48 Washington – 3
#62 Arizona State – 4
 
Singles
1. (#20) Murphy Cassone (ASU) def. (#6) Clement Chidekh (UW) – 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (3)
2. (#125) Fabien Salle (ASU) def. Jack Davis (UW) – 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (2)
3. Ewen Lumsden (UW) def. Jacob Bullard (ASU) – 6-1, 7-5
4. Han-Chih Lin (UW) def. George Stoupe (ASU) – 4-6, 6-1, 6-4
5. Cesar Bouchelaghem (UW) def. Nicola Cigna (ASU) – 7-6 (3), 6-4
6. Christian Lerby (ASU) def. Nedim Suko (UW) – 7-5, 6-4
Order of Finish: 3, 5, 6, 1, 4, 2
 
Doubles
1. Bullard/Cassone (ASU) def. (#47) Davis/Lumsden (UW) – 6-4
2. Lerby/Stoupe (ASU) def. (#61) Chidekh/Suko (UW) – 7-6 (7)
3. Bouchelaghem/Lin (UW) def. Cigna/Salle (ASU) – 6-2
Order of Finish: 3, 1, 2