The highest ranking in Oregon men’s tennis history didn’t help junior Sven Swinnen.
Swinnen was ousted in the first round of the Pacific-10 men’s Individual Tennis Championships on Thursday in Ojai, Calif.
Swinnen, ranked 17th in the nation, didn’t have his serve broken once throughout the three-set thriller, but couldn’t break through Arizona’s Colin O’Grady’s and lost, 7-6, 6-7, 7-6.
“I think if you look at it the right way, this could be a blessing,” Oregon head coach Chris Russell said. “Swinnen just doesn’t get disappointed after a loss; he analyzes what he needs to improve and goes out and gets better.”
Russell said the loss will give Swinnen the time to isolate some aspects of his game he needs to improve before the NCAA singles tournament.
Oregon’s lone singles player still alive is junior Manuel Kost. The Swiss-born Kost powered his way over Arizona’s Whi Kim, 6-4, 6-3, and avenged an earlier loss this season to UCLA’s Luben Pampoulov, defeating the Bruin in three sets, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.
“He out-played Kim and his serve was just too big,” Russell said, “Against Pampoulov, he had him play extra tennis by volleying. He stepped up and earned this win.” Kost will play No. 31 Adriano Biasellia of Southern California today at noon in the quarterfinals.
In Oregon’s other two matches, Markus Schiller lost to No. 11 Sam Warburg of Stanford, 6-2, 7-5, and Thomas Bieri lost to USC’s Jasmil Al-Agba, 7-6, 6-0.
“Both of them played their asses off in spots and if they can step up and do that throughout the whole match, it will help the team out tremendously,” Russell said.

Panova breezes to

quarterfinals
Oregon’s Daria Panova continued her quest for a second-straight Pac-10 individual outdoor title by defeating Arizona State’s Joslynn Burkett, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, and 39th-ranked Theresa Logar of Stanford, 6-2, 6-2, to move her way into today’s quarterfinals.
Panova said her first-set struggles were due to the shadows on the court.
“It took me a set to get used to the courts, but after I adjusted I did what I needed to do to win the match,” she said.
“Daria just had some first-round jitters and once she got that out of her system, she didn’t make any mistakes,” Oregon head coach Nils Schyllander said.
Oregon’s Dominika Dieskova overpowered her first opponent, but a battle with dehydration in her second match slowed the freshman from Slovakia. She was defeated, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1, by 12th-ranked Alice Barnes of Stanford.
“Dominika was playing very well and it’s a shame this happened to her,” Schyllander said.
Courtney Nagle finished her singles career at Oregon, losing in the first round to Dea Sumantri of Washington, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
“I was most impressed with Courtney and how she played her match today,” Schyllander said. “She played a great match and should be proud.”