ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The University of Chicago men's tennis team faced off against a pair of nationally-ranked foes and came away with a 1-1 record on Saturday. UChicago was edged by Washington University-St. Louis 5-4 and then defeated University of Texas-Tyler 7-2.

The No. 13-ranked Maroons moved to 12-4. The No. 5-ranked Bears improved to 14-4 and the No. 19-ranked Patriots fell to 14-7.

The first match of the day featured conference rivals UChicago and WashU. The Maroons came out strong with a 2-1 lead after doubles and quickly won at No. 1 and No. 6 singles to go ahead 4-1. The middle four singles matches went to deciding third sets, and the Bears came out the winners each time to rally for the 5-4 victory. Freshmen Nicolas Chua and David Liu each earned wins in singles and as a doubles tandem at the No. 3 spot.

"We've gone 5-4 with three teams ranked in the top 10 now, so we absolutely know that we have the ability to compete with anyone," Head Coach Jay Tee said. "The guys are competing at a high level and now it's just a matter of getting those last couple games and keeping our focus until the end. The guys are seeing how close we are to the top and how good we can be and are hungry to keep improving, which is all I can ask for."

The afternoon contest featured Texas-Tyler as the opponent. UChicago showed no hangover from the previous match and swept through doubles 3-0. The Maroons won four of six singles matches to grab the team victory. Multiple winners included Chua, Liu and Gordon Zhang.

"We've got a resilient group of guys here and they showed it against UT-Tyler," said Tee. "We came out firing and swept doubles against a very good team. Deepak and Ankur knocked off a team that was undefeated on the season and the other two pairings really brought the intensity. We leaned heavily on our depth in this match and the guys stepped up and played well. Chua and Liu are really starting to come into their own and are learning how to compete at the college level, which is great to see. We will need to prepare our bodies well tonight as we expect another battle with Whitewater tomorrow."

Washington-St. Louis 5, UChicago 4
Singles
1. Nicolas Chua (UC) def. John Carswell (WU) 6-1, 6-1
2. Ross Putterman (WU) def. Sven Kranz (UC) 7-5, 3-6, 6-3
3. Jeremy Bush (WU) def. Deepak Sabada (UC) 4-6, 6-4, 6-3
4. Tyler Kratky (WU) def. Peter Leung (UC) 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-2
5. Johnny Wu (WU) def. Luke Tsai (UC) 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4
6. David Liu (UC) def. Jason Haugen (WU) 6-1, 6-3
Doubles
1. Deepak Sabada/Ankur Bhargava (UC) def. Jeremy Bush/Ross Putterman (WU) 8-5
2. Kevin Chu/Jason Haugen (WU) def. Peter Leung/Max Hawkins (UC) 8-3
3. David Liu/Nicolas Chua (UC) def. Josh Cogan/Parker Chang (WU) 9-8 (7-3)

UChicago 7, Texas-Tyler 2
Singles
1. Nicolas Chua (UC) def. Daniel Budd (TT) 6-1, 6-2
2. David Liu (UC) def. Harry Kelleher (TT) 6-1, 7-5
3. Frankie Fischer (TT) def. Ankur Bhargava (UC) 6-4, 2-6, 10-4
4. Ryan Elwood (TT) def. Michael Selin (UC) 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 10-8
5. Max Hawkins (UC) def. Jack Puckey (TT) 6-1, 6-1
6. Gordon Zhang (UC) def. Jake Cunningham (TT) 6-1, 6-2
Doubles
1. Deepak Sabada/Ankur Bhargava (UC) def. Chris Wootton/Frankie Fischer (TT) 8-5
2. Gordon Zhang/Max Hawkins (UC) def. Daniel Budd/Harry Kelleher (TT) 8-2
3. David Liu/Nicolas Chua (UC) def. Alex Free/Ryan Elwood (TT) 8-2

NEXT MATCH:

• Sunday, Apr. 12 – UChicago vs. University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (at St. Louis, Mo.), 9 AM