The Oregon men’s tennis team has a freshman sensation on its hands. Mike Myrhed, one of the Ducks’ Swedish imports, has raced to a 4-0 start in as many dual matches this season.
“Mike’s doing a great job,” Oregon coach Kevin Kowalik said. “I’m really happy with the way he’s playing right now. He’s playing with a lot of energy, he’s doing really well and he’s only going to get better.”
Myrhed is also bringing in the wins from the No. 3 doubles position. He is 4-0 in doubles play with fellow freshman Gustavo Loza.
“Mike and Gustavo have definitely been a bright spark for us so far,” Kowalik said. “They’re clicking on the court and their personalities seem to mesh.”
With Myrhed’s help, the Ducks steamrolled Gonzaga and Nevada-Reno Saturday. Oregon shut out the Bulldogs with an emphatic 7-0. The Ducks also beat Nevada 6-1. In that match, senior Thomas Bieri, at the No. 2 singles spot, was the only Duck to drop a point.
Bieri had no trouble against Gonzaga earlier in the day, winning his singles match against Reid Arthur in straight sets 6-2, 6-2. Against the Wolfpack’s Guillaume Tonelli, however, he struggled to find his rhythm and eventually lost a close match 6-7, 5-7.
“Thomas was just a little off tonight,” Kowalik said. “But I wouldn’t read too much into his loss. He’s been sick, and that always takes a toll. He’s going to bounce back and when it’s time for him to win, he’ll get some wins for us.”
The rest of the Ducks came out of the weekend with perfect records. Senior Arron Spencer defeated Gonzaga’s Marco Pineda
6-1, 6-1. Spencer and Markus Schiller also combined to produce two close doubles victories from the No. 1 roster spot for the Ducks against their two opponents this weekend.
“They played a really good match,” Kowalik said, referring to Spencer and Schiller’s win over Nevada’s Eldar Dzhafarov and Guillaume Tonelli.
The match went into a tiebreak at 7-7; the Oregon pair eventually took control to push the score to 8-7.
“Competition at the top spot is always going to be closer because every school has that one standout player in the number one position and those players are naturally better. I thought our guys did very well against a good opponent,” Kowalik said.
The two wins this weekend give the Ducks a 4-0 record to start the season. Oregon goes on the road against Portland on Tuesday.
The Ducks narrowly lost to the Pilots 3-4 the last time the teams met in 2005.
“This Tuesday’s match is another revenge win that we really want,” Kowalik said. “We lost to them last year and they are a tough team. But we need to come out and be ready to play.”
According to Kowalik, the match against Portland is the final tune-up that the Ducks are going to get before they jump into the bulk of their schedule and begin playing ranked opponents. Oregon will play teams in Louisiana and California before finally coming back to Eugene to go up against Washington on Feb. 24.