Home sweet home.
That’s where the Oregon men’s tennis team is right now — home indoors, out of the cold, rain and wind.
The Ducks’ first competition in the new Student Tennis Center was a successful one.
“It feels good to be able to play on your home court,” men’s tennis coach Chris Russell said. “Having [a home court] has affected the quality of our practices and our matches.”
The Duck Classic was a three-day, round-robin tournament involving Pacific-10 Conference rivals Washington and Portland.
Sophomore Oded Teig had the best outing for the Ducks, as he won three of four singles matches and went 2-1 in doubles matches with freshman Buck Mink. Teig upset the No. 84-ranked Jeremy Berman from Washington, 6-2, 6-3. Teig was unsuccessful in his second upset bid against the Huskies’ No. 50-ranked Matt Hanlin.
“Oded played good for most of the weekend, going three-for-four,” Russell said. “He’s seeing what he needs to do to get to the next level of play.”
A doubles tandem of David Becker and Jason Menke provided excitement during the weekend. Becker and Menke upset Washington’s top doubles team of Hanlin and Berman, 8-5, Friday and earned an 8-5 come-from-behind victory against Portland’s Jeff Nunnenkamp and Quinn Brochard Sunday.
“Hopefully, we can take stuff from this weekend and make adjustments,” Russell said. “This was a really good barometer to where we need to be. And it gives us a good measurement for what we need to work on.”
The Oregon women will have to wait until next year for their home opener. Instead, the Ducks traveled to Palo Alto, Calif., for the ITA Rolex Regional Tournament.
After a strong start Thursday, weather and injuries put a damper on the Ducks’ spirits.
Sophomore Jeanette Mattsson defeated Portland’s Samantha Kluger 6-2, 6-1 to advance to the round of 32, as did sophomore Monika Geiczys with a first round bye. Oregon’s four other entrants lost in the first round of play.
Mattsson then swept Washington’s Amy Allen, 6-0, 6-0. Geiczys, the No. 14 seed, defeated Pacific’s Melinda Kocsis, 6-4, 6-3.
Freshman Courtney Nagle and junior Vickie Gunnarson rebounded with 8-1 wins in consolation play.
Rain postponed Friday’s second-round action and forced the cancellation of the consolation and doubles play for the tournament.
Geiczys beat Fresno State’s Simone Jardin 1-6, 6-3, 6-0 to advance to the quarterfinals but was forced to withdraw from the tournament with an aggravated wrist.
The doubles team of Geiczys and Nagle had advanced to the quarterfinal round, but they were forced to withdraw because of the injury.
“Monika has a strained muscle in her wrist, and it just got too painful to continue playing,” women’s head coach Jack Griffin said.
Geiczys and the Oregon team will have two months to recover. Their next competition is Jan. 12 in the Pac-10 Indoor Championships.