The Notre Dame men’s tennis team opened up conference play on the road at Georgia Tech and Clemson this weekend. As ACC matches began, the men dropped the pair of contests to the home teams as they lost 4-1 and 4-2 respectively. Junior Sebastian Dominko highlighted Irish play as he won both his doubles matches alongside partner Noah Becker as well as winning both his #1 singles matches handily against ranked opponents.
The Irish would contest their first match of the year outdoors in Atlanta on Friday evening. Dominko and Becker were first off the court in doubles with a 6-3 win while the top two courts each got up early breaks. After the #33 ranked Yellow Jackets duo pushed back to take the #1 doubles court, eyes turned to court #2 where the senior duo of Jamie Corsillo and Yu Zhang had built a single break lead, up 5-2. But the home team, boasting the #19 ranked doubles team in the country, responded with a run of their own and would claim the early 1-0 lead.
In singles, Dominko would be first off the court with a dominant win at #1 over #104 in the country. The Notre Dame junior prevailed 6-1, 6-3 having won 7 deuce games in the match to separate and even the match score. However, Georgia Tech would take the three contests in the bottom half of the lineup in straight sets to claim the match. Zhang, after dropping the first 3-6, roared back to win the second set 6-1 and was in a third set when play ended. Chase Thompson was serving up set points in the second looking to get himself into a third set of his own when Georgia Tech clinched the match.
On Sunday, with temperatures having dropped significantly, the match against Clemson was back inside at the Duckworth Family Tennis Facility. The Tigers would take the #1 court quickly but the Irish responded on the remaining courts. Dominko and Becker, playing #2 in this one, would win the contest in which both teams held serve every time until the final game where the Irish pair broke to win 6-4. With the doubles knotted at one a piece, the freshman pairing of Luis Llorens and Peter Nad started quickly and led for a majority of the match, earning the opportunity to serve it out at 5-4. But a hiccup on serve for the Irish rookies made it 5-5 and then the Tigers took their first lead of the match. Llorens, serving at 5-6, would hold his service game to send it to a tiebreak where the Irish would win the breaker 7-5 on an error by the home team.
Dominko once again was first off the court with a blistering 6-1, 6-4 win against the #47 ranked player in the country. The junior from Slovenia put on a serving masterpiece as he only lost one point on serve the entire match, which came in the opening game. Naturally, all the other matches were much closer than the top court with Clemson taking 4 first sets. Despite push back from the Irish, the Tigers rallied enough to claim 4 points. Corsillo had responded from dropping the first and was fighting in a third set when play finished.
Up Next:
Notre Dame will return home to the Eck Tennis Pavilion next weekend and continue ACC play. They will host the Duke Blue Devils on Friday, March 7th at 5pm before taking on the North Carolina Tar Heels on Sunday the 9th at noon.
Friday Box Score
#35 Notre Dame 1 #54 Georgia Tech 4
Doubles
#33 Clement/Arora(GT) def. Nad/Thompson(ND) 6-2
#19 Bonetto/Carlini(GT) def. Corsillo/Zhang(ND) 7-5
Dominko/Becker(ND) def. Brancatelli/Bauer(GT) 6-3
Order of Finish(3, 1, 2)
Singles
#39 Dominko(ND) def. #104 Bonetto(GT) 6-1, 6-3
Thompson(ND) vs. Brancatelli(GT) 5-7, 5-4 DNF
Zhang(ND) vs. Arora(GT) 3-6, 6-1, 3-4 DNF
Clement(GT) def. Nad(ND) 7-6(6), 6-1
Biagiotti(GT) def. Corsillo(ND) 6-4, 6-3
Carlini(GT) def. Magimay(ND) 6-4, 6-4
Order of Finish (1, 6, 4, 5)
Sunday Box Score
#35 Notre Dame 2 #33 Clemson 4
Doubles
#44 Vukadin/Smith(CLEM) def. Corsillo/Zhang(ND) 6-1
Dominko/Becker(ND) def. Damm/Markov(CLEM) 6-4
Nad/Llorens(ND) def. Abderrahman/Gales(CLEM) 7-6(5)
Order of Finish(1, 2, 3)
Singles
#39 Dominko(ND) def. #47 Vukadin(CLEM) 6-1, 6-4
#90 Abderrahman(CLEM) def. Zhang(ND) 7-5, 6-4
Markov(CLEM) def. Nad(ND) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
Corsillo(ND) vs. Gales(CLEM) 2-6, 6-3, 2-3 DNF
Mesarovic(CLEM) def. Magimay(ND) 7-5, 6-2
Smith(CLEM) def. Llorens(ND) 6-4, 6-2
Order of Finish (1, 5, 6, 3, 2)