UA's Haugland proves his worth

Katherine K. Gardiner Arizona Daily Wildcat UA tennis player Tom Haugland returns a shot from his Baylor opponent during a singles match at Tucson Country Club on Saturday. Haugland's victory gave Arizona a 4-3 win over Baylor.

Arizona (3-0) narrowly defeated Baylor, 4-3 on Saturday due mainly to the strong play of Haugland.

The Wildcats also swept Oregon, 7-0 on Friday afternoon.

Haugland, a senior, went 2-0 in his singles matches.

With the Baylor match tied at 3-3 after the Wildcats lost the doubles point and seniors Henrik Wagner and Roland Kupka lost their singles matches, the match between Haugland and the Bears' Aaron Ramos on court two became tense.

After dropping the first set, 2-6, Haugland came back to win the next set, 6-3, thereby forcing a third.

"I knew that I just had to play aggressive, take one ball at a time, relax and go for the ball," Haugland said of the third set.

In the decisive set, Haugland defeated Ramos, 6-3 to give Arizona the victory. He also defeated Oregon's Carlos Navarro in straight sets, 6-0, 7-6 on Friday.

"He was unbelievable in the third set (Saturday). This game is 90 percent mental and he got confidence by winning a match Friday and I think that's what got him through (against Baylor)," UA head coach Bill Wright said.

Haugland was moved from the number one spot because Wright wanted him to gain some confidence after struggling in early matches.

"There's a huge chance that (number one players) are going to lose their confidence because they're playing the number one guy day after day," Wright said. "Tom had been at number one three times and he just got his brains beaten out. Letting him hit a bunch of balls, getting his match and some confidence (in the number two spot) was good."

Wagner, who is 3-2 in singles play, took over the stressful top position for the Wildcats, defeating the Ducks' Dougal Williams, 6-4, 6-2 on Friday and losing to Baylor's Johan Jooste, 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 on Saturday.

"We didn't think these guys were that good but they were about to beat us today," Haugland said. "They were on fire and we just had to fight it back and we did and I finally managed to make it through."