DENVER – The No. 43-ranked University of Denver men's tennis team (15-0, 0-0 Summit) continued its undefeated start to the 2024 season with a 6-1 win over Nevada at Denver Tennis Park on Tuesday.
 
For the eighth match in a row, Denver won the doubles point before rattling off four-straight singles wins. The final two matches were decided with 10-point tiebreaks where the teams split results.
 
DU moved to 15-0 through its penultimate non-conference match of the year with two more duals scheduled in the next five days.
 
Coach's Notes:
From head coach Drew Eberly: "I thought we did a good job in doubles starting out. We got up early on all three courts. Court 3 played really well throughout; but we had a little bit of a mental let up on 1 and 2, but the guys did a good job of closing it out. And then in singles, the first hour was an absolute battle. Credit to Nevada, I thought they played really well. They've got really strong players, and they took it to us. Nico (Herrero Cuesta) was down a couple set points and battled back in the first set, so I'm proud of him for sticking it out. The other guys down low, Raff (Papajcik) and Charlie (Miller) did a really nice job of taking care of business.
 
"We've got a big one against a Pac-12 powerhouse in Oregon here on Friday at 1:30, so hopefully we can get all of the fans out and get a home-court advantage for the match."
 
Doubles:
Denver captured the doubles point with wins in the Nos. 2 and 3 matches, starting with graduate student Anish Sriniketh and sophomore Raffaello Papajcik on Court 3. They began with a break in their second return game and added another for a 4-1 lead before closing the match out at 6-2. In the No. 2 match, graduate student Marvin Schaber and junior Daniel Sancho Arbizu twice exchanged breaks through their first eight games before breaking for a third time to lead 5-4 where they served it out.
 
Senior Nicolas Herrero Cuesta and junior Rikuto Yamaguchi, too, traded breaks midway through their match and were on serve at 5-4 when the match was abandoned.
 
Singles:
DU won the first four singles matches to wrap up and ultimately won five of the six to secure the 6-1 dual victory.
 
Papajcik started things strongly for Denver, earning a two-break lead at 5-2 in both of his sets at No. 5 singles. Schaber, too, took a 5-2 lead in his first set before jumping out to 5-0 in the second. Nevada's Loris Zisswiller stayed alive with a late break, but the DU grad student eventually served it out on his second try.
 
Senior Charlie Miller clinched the dual for DU with another win in straight sets, doing so in a similar manner to Papajcik. He broke in consecutive return games in the middle of both of his sets, claiming 5-2 leads and securing the win shortly after.
 
Just a few minutes after Miller finished off the win at No. 6 singles, Herrero Cuesta added a fifth point for Denver at No. 1 singles. He started with a win in what was a rollercoaster of a first set, twice coming back from a break down to get to 4-5, where he saved set points to level the set at 5-all and won the next two games to taking the set, 7-5. In the second set, he took hold with a 3-2 break lead and held on to win the match.
 
With the team victory decided, the teams opted to play 10-point tiebreaks in the remaining two matches after the players had split sets just as the No. 1 singles match finished. In both matches, the Denver player had rallied from a set down to force the third set. Both tiebreaks got to 9-all at roughly the same time before Nevada claimed its only point of the day, taking the No. 3 match, 11-9. DU's Yamaguchi played to a 13-11 win in his tiebreak at No. 4 singles to end the day.
 
Up Next:
The University of Denver men's tennis team wraps up its non-conference schedule with a clash against No. 62 Oregon on Friday, March 29, at 1:30 p.m. MT at Denver Tennis Park.
 
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