ST. PETER, Minn. – Lalith Suresh came out on top in a thrilling third-set tiebreak to give the No. 9 Swarthmore College men's tennis team a 4-3 victory over No. 11 Trinity University (Texas) to begin consolation play at the ITA Indoor National Championship on Saturday.
Suresh's heroics completed a scintillating comeback by the Garnet, who erased a 3-1 deficit to win the match. After losing the doubles point, Swarthmore found itself one loss away from defeat after dropping two of the first three singles bouts. However,
Rishi Verma,
Aamish Pal, and Suresh pulled out three straight victories to carry the Garnet to triumph.
HOW IT HAPPENED
-
Michael Melnikov and
Utham Koduri got Swarthmore off to a good start with a 6-4 win at first doubles. However,
Max Lindstrom and Verma lost a 6-3 decision at the third spot before the Tigers defeated
Max Pogorelov and
Kai Chen, 6-4, at second doubles to take a 1-0 lead.
- Melnikov won his second singles match of the tournament, 6-3, 6-2, at the top position to pull the Garnet even at one apiece. Lindstrom was unable to find a groove and dropped a 2-6, 1-6 match at second singles. Trinity then topped
Dylan Hayes Gilbert, 6-2, 6-3, at the sixth spot to come within one point of victory at 3-1.
- Verma began the comeback with a straight sets win at third singles, 6-3, 6-4. Pal conceded the opening set of his match at fifth singles, 3-6, putting Swarthmore's chances in peril. However, the junior evened the bout with a 6-3 victory before gutting out a 7-5 win in the decisive set to keep the Garnet alive.
- The match came down to fourth singles where Suresh dropped the opener, 4-6. The junior persevered and battled through a tight second set, pulling out a 7-6 (7-2) success to send the match the distance. The two players traded games and eventually went into another tiebreak to determine the winner. Suresh got out to a 3-0 lead and had three match-point opportunities, but his opponent fended off all three. Finally, Suresh completed the comeback on his fourth match point, winning 8-7, as his opponent sent a shot long to end the match.
UP NEXT
Swarthmore (2-1) will play for fifth place in the tournament on Sunday against an opponent to be determined.
