ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Eckerd men's tennis team won its second match in as many days and collected its fourth win of the season against Post (Conn.), 6-1, on Tuesday afternoon at the Bullard Courts. The Tritons have now won three of their last four matches.
The Tritons (4-6) defeated the Eagles (1-5) by winning the doubles point and taking five of six singles matches.
EC collected the doubles point with wins out of the No. 1 and No. 3 slots. The pairing of Pierre-Olivier Lassalle and Prakrut Patel won their fifth doubles matchup in a row, 6-3 and 6-1. EC narrowly dropped the No. 2 draw, with Christian Kearns and Arthur de Souza Fonseca falling 7-6 (7-5). Eric Asakura and Arik Suez won their matchup, 6-2, to give the Tritons the doubles point.
Eckerd opened the singles matchups with five straight wins. Lassalle has now won eight of his last nine singles matchups with a 6-3 and 6-1 win over Post's Nino Krneta in the No. 1 slot. Patel also registered his second consecutive singles win with a 6-2 and 7-5 showing against PU's Gustavo Kerber in the No. 2 position.
Fonseca cruised to a first-set 6-1 win before falling in the second set 6-7 (5-7) but bounced back in a third-set tiebreaker, 6-0, to win the No. 3 draw. Both Asakura (7-5, 6-4) and Kearns (4-6, 6-3, 6-3) won their singles matchups in the No. 4 and No. 5 slots.
The Tritons welcome Millsaps College (Miss.) to the Bullard Courts on Wednesday for Senior Day at 3:00 PM.
Singles competition
1. Pierre Lassalle (ECM) def. Nino Krneta (POSTM) 6-3, 6-1
2. Prakrut Patel (ECM) def. Gustavo Kerber (POSTM) 6-2, 7-5
3. Arthur Fonseca (ECM) def. Ivan Kalchanov (POSTM) 6-1, 6-7 (5-7), 6-0
4. Eric Asakura (ECM) def. Cooper Smith (POSTM) 7-5, 6-4
5. Christian Kearns (ECM) def. Anton Anderson (POSTM) 4-6, 6-3, 6-3
6. Jose Nunez (POSTM) def. Arik Suez (ECM) 6-2, 6-0
Doubles competition
1. Pierre Lassalle/Prakrut Patel (ECM) def. Nino Krneta/Cooper Smith (POSTM) 6-4
2. Anton Anderson/Gustavo Kerber (POSTM) def. Christian Kearns/Arthur Fonseca (ECM) 7-6 (7-5)
3. Eric Asakura/Arik Suez (ECM) def. Niklas Langenfield/Samuel Rodriguez (POSTM) 6-2
