Tulsa Beats Purdue, Illinois State to Register First Wins of the Season

Saturday, January 22

Tulsa, Okla.

12:00 PM

Tulsa

Purdue

Photo by: Campbell Rogerson

Tulsa Beats Purdue, Illinois State to Register First Wins of the Season

1/22/2022 8:57:00 PM | Men's Tennis

TULSA, Okla. ― The Tulsa men's tennis team won both duals today, beating Purdue 6-1 before downing Illinois State 7-0 at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center. Tulsa improves to 2-1 on the young season.

"I liked our consistency," head coach Vince Westbrook said. "I liked the way our guys stayed focus because they knew the longer these teams drug us out, it was in their favor, and not in ours."

Tulsa 6, Purdue 1

Tulsa got its first victory of the spring season during the early afternoon match against Purdue, beating the Boilermakers 6-1.

Tulsa took the doubles point to take an opening lead 1-0. After dropping the opening doubles match, Kody Pearson/Connor Di Marco won on court one to give them their first doubles win of the spring and force a winner take all on court three.

Tied 5-5, Tom Thelwall-Jones/Daniel Siddall took two straight sets to secure the doubles point for Tulsa and a 7-5 win. Thelwall-Jones/Siddall have opened the season with consecutive doubles victories.

The Hurricane dominated the singles matches, winning five of the six matches. Ezequiel Santalla, Stefan Hampe and Callum Gale all won in straight sets, while Pearson and Gaber went to the third set.

Singles:
1. Kody Pearson (Tulsa) def. Athell Bennett (Purdue) 6-3, 2-6, 6-1
2. Ezequiel Santalla (Tulsa) def. Sebastian Welch (Purdue) 6-1, 7-5
3. Stefan Hampe (Tulsa) def. Michal Wozniak (Purdue) 7-6 (1), 6-2
4. Gabriele Brancatelli (Purdue) def. Connor Di Marco (Tulsa) 6-4, 1-6, 6-4
5. Callum Gale (Tulsa) def. Rohan Sachdev (Purdue) 7-5, 6-4
6. Adham Gaber (Tulsa) def. Piotr Galus (Purdue) 6-0, 6-7, [10-3]

Order of finish: 5,2,3,1,6,4

Doubles:
1. Connor Di Marco/Kody Pearson (Tulsa) def. Athell Bennett/Sebastian Welch (Purdue), 6-3
2. Michal Wozniak/Piotr Galus (Purdue) def. Adham Gaber/Callum Gale (Tulsa), 6-0
3. Daniel Siddall/Tom Thelwall-Jones (Tulsa) def. Gabriele Brancatelli/Tomasz Dudek (Purdue), 7-5

Order of finish: 2,1,3

Tulsa 7, Illinois State 0

For the third consecutive match, Tulsa won the doubles point to jump to an early 1-0 lead over the Redbirds.

"We're undefeated in doubles, and we have a lot of options with four good teams," Westbrook said. "Once we get into singles, we are a pretty deep team and quite a bit of experience."

The duo of Siddall/Thelwall-Jones slid into the first spot for the first time this season. The tandem won 6-4 over ISU, improving to a team-best 3-0 on the season, and clinching the doubles point for Tulsa for a second consecutive match. On court three, Hampe/Santalla made their doubles debut with a 6-2 victory, filling in for Di Marco/Pearson. Court two's match was retired due to the Hurricane already securing the doubles point.

On the singles side, the Hurricane had an impressive showing, headlined by Gale and Hampe's 6-0, 6-0 wins to start off. Pearson followed with his team-best third win of the season to give Tulsa its fourth point, while Gaber and Siddall completed the sweep with wins of their own.

Singles:
1. Kody Pearson def. Nam Pham 6-2, 6-2
2. Ezequiel Santalla def. Pol Botifoll Rius 6-3, 6-3
3. Stefan Hampe def. Melker Isaksson 6-0, 6-0
4. Adham Gaber def. Diego Herrera 6-0, 6-4
5. Callum Gale def. Diego La Gal Perez 6-0, 6-0
6. Daniel Siddall def. Dominick Cuchran 6-3, 7-6 (1)

Order of finish: 5,3,1,2,4,6

Doubles:
1. Siddall/Thelwall-Jones (Tulsa) def. Le Gal Perez/Isaksson 6-4
2. Gaber/Gale (Tulsa) vs Botifoll/Rasmusson DNF
3. Hampe/Santalla def. Pham/Chiu 6-2

Order of finish: 3,1

Tulsa men's tennis returns to action next weekend at the ITA Kickoff in Fort Worth, Texas.