By Steve Fanucchi
Arizona Daily Wildcat
The UA men's tennis team continued its dominance over nonconference opponents by beating Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo Wednesday 6-1 at Robson Tennis Center.
The Wildcats (6-12) are creeping back into the thick of things, while the Mustangs lost for the first time in nine matches.
"This win was big, but it was a win to get ready for this weekend," UA head coach Bill Wright said. "Any win is good to get to the .500 mark. The guys fought very hard."
The Wildcats returned their normal lineup to the courts for the first time in over a month.
Home is where Arizona belongs Ä the team sports a 5-3 record and feels it has an advantage when it plays at home on the fast courts.
The Wildcats got off to a quick start by winning all three of the doubles matches, for the first time this year.
The doubles tandem of Sten Sumberg and Chris Jenkins teamed up for an 8-6 win over Chris Magyary and Josh Johnston.
Tied 3-3 in the pro set, Sumberg smashed a forehand shot for a break point, then finished off the doubles match when he crushed three straight aces at the Mustangs to win.
Jan Anderson and Eddie Schwartz easily won their doubles set over Alex Reyes and Jason Devera 8-4. The pair (6-4) is the only UA doubles team with a winning record. James Rey and Vuk Tapuskovic beat Casey Wood and Rafael Huerta 8-5.
For only the seventh time in 17 dual matches, the Wildcats went into the break leading 1-0.
"That is as hard as we have played all year at doubles," assistant coach Tom Hagedorn said.
Anderson came back to the Arizona lineup at the usual No. 1 position. In singles, the 33rd-ranked Anderson (24-12) defeated Magyary in straight sets 6-3, 6-2.
The featured singles match was Jenkins (9-4) vs. Huerta (10-11).
In the first set, both players held serve until Jenkins broke in the sixth game, as the game was forced into five deuce points. At advantage Jenkins after the fifth deuce point, he smacked an ace past Huerta for the game to go up 4-3.
Huerta continued to battle, but Jenkins grabbed the first set, and in the second, Huerta fell apart.
The second set began with a break by each player, and as the set was tied at 1-1, Jenkins continued to play his game as Huerta rattled off 10 straight unforced errors and 18 in the second set. Jenkins took over and won his singles match 6-3, 6-1.
"I felt pretty good out there today, but if you give guys like them confidence, they will play great," Jenkins said. "I won all of the close points and then he folded."
Jack Enfield and CP-SLO's Reyes were involved in the day's longest match. Reyes came into the match as the Mustangs' winningest player, with 13, but Enfield won 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3).
James Rey (9-8 in dual matches) handily defeated Nadare Izadi 7-6, 6-3. Previously, Izadi had suffered only one loss this season.
"I did not play as well as I had liked but I still won," Rey said. "I tried to get not too impatient and play my game."
Schwartz was tagged with the Wildcats' only loss on the day, falling to Johnston 6-2, 6-2.
"I never really had a chance to get my game going," Schwartz said. "The guy totally dominated me like no one else before."
Sumberg played singles against Casey Wood, winning 6-4, 6-2.
"I am in a huge slump right now from the three weeks off, hitting extremely bad, just finding ways to win," Sumberg said. "I was mentally prepared for the match and I focused in and that is how I won today."
The Wildcats will have their work cut out for them this weekend as they will host No. 1-ranked Stanford (15-0) today and No. 27 Cal (8-2, 1-1 Pacific 10 Conference South) tomorrow at Robson Tennis Center. Both conference matches will begin at 1:30 p.m.
Both the Cardinal and Bears swept the Wildcats 7-0 one week ago. The Wildcats are winless in the Pac-10, but feel they can beat anyone on any given day.
"We need to serve well against Stanford and we cannot afford to have shaky first sets as we did against SLO," Wright said.
Arizona has lost five straight against the Cardinal and won two of the last five against the Bears dating back to the 1993 season.
Leading the way for Stanford will be sixth-ranked Jeff Salzenstein, 25th-ranked Scott Humphries, 36th-ranked Paul Goldstein and 46th-ranked Jim Thomas. The Bears will throw their 12th-ranked player, Casey Louie, at the Wildcats.
The Cardinal have the No. 2 doubles team of Goldstein and Humphries, which has combined for 31 victories this year.
"They have some young guys who have never played here (in Tucson) before and that will be to our advantage," Wright said.