WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Purdue men’s tennis team nearly saw a complete comeback, but ultimately fell 3-4 to Cornell. Despite the dual loss, No. 76 nationally-ranked Nour Fathalla picked up his first win of the spring season, downing No. 120 Rodrigo Fernandes (Cornell): 6-2, 2-6, 6-3.
With the result, Purdue moves to 1-1 on the season while Cornell improves to 2-0 after picking up a shutout at Louisville to open the season.
It was a close battle across the courts in singles, with the match coming down to the final three courts in play after Henrik Villanger picked up a win at the No. 2 position. Fathalla (No. 1 position), Stefan Simeunovic (No. 3 position) and Nikola Jovic (No. 6 position) were locked in tight third-set battles that saw tied games at 3-3 all for Jovic, a 40-40 tie at 4-3 for Simeunovic and at 30-30 with a 4-3 set lead for Fathalla.
Up next, the Boilermakers will head to Columbus, Ohio for a pair of duals. First, Purdue will take on Old Dominion on Friday at 1 p.m. ET. Then, on Saturday Purdue’s opponent and time will be determined by Friday’s results.
Doubles
- Maj Premzl / Stefan Simeunovic (Purdue) vs. Eric Verdes / Rodrigo Fernandez (Cornell): 3-5 UNF
- #90 Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar / Rushil Khosla (Cornell) def. Henrik Villanger / Nour Fathalla (Purdue): 6-1
- Felipe Pinzon / Petar Teodorovic (Cornell) def. Jacob Lee / Juan David Velasquez (Purdue): 6-2
Singles
- #76 Nour Fathalla (Purdue) def. #120 Rodrigo Fernandes (Cornell): 6-2, 2-6, 6-3
- Henrik Villanger (Purdue) def. Eric Verdes (Cornell): 7-6(5), 6-4
- Stefan Simeunovic (Purdue) def. Petar Teodorovic (Cornell): 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
- #113 Felipe Pinzon (Cornell) def. Juan David Velasquez (Purdue): 7-5, 6-4
- Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar (Cornell) def. Maj Premzl (Purdue): 6-3, 6-1
- Aman Sharma (Cornell) def. Nikola Jovic (Purdue): 6-3, 3-6, 7-5
Order of Finish
Doubles: 2, 3
Singles: 5, 4, 2, 1, 6, 3