Upcoming Event: Men's Tennis versus ITA Regionals on October 15, 2025
Men's Tennis
vs ITA Regionals
Friday, February 7
Salt Lake City, UT
12:00 PM
University of Utah
vs
Utah State
Photo by: Jake Laramie
Men's Tennis Continues Home Stretch Against Utah State and Idaho State
2/5/2020 10:05 AM | Men's Tennis
Utes stay at home for pair of matches on Friday.
FIRST SERVE
Utah men's tennis is set to continue their home stretch, hosting two matches this Friday, Feb. 7Â at the George S. Eccles Tennis Center in Salt Lake City. Utah will open competition with a match against Utah State at 12 p.m. MT, followed by a match against Idaho State at 5 p.m. MT. The matches will be streamed here.
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HOME SWEET HOME
The Utes have established a home-court advantage in recent years and have picked up where they left off last season at home, beginning the 2020 home slate with a perfect 5-0 record. Last weekend, Utah picked up three home wins to begin the stretch of 11-of-13 matches at home. In the last five seasons, Utah posted a combined record of 54-16 at the Eccles Tennis Center.
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DOUBLES DOMINATING
Through seven matches, Utah has been able to get an early lead over their opponents after claiming the doubles point in six of the seven matches this season. Russell Benkaim and Randy Cory have battled in the top spot for Utah, holding a 4-3 record and are currently on a three-match win streak as a pair. Freshmen Franco Capalbo and Wally Thayne have been steady in the No. 2 spot and are undefeated (4-0) on the season. Rounding out Utah's doubles teams this season, seniors Azat Hankuliyev and Slava Shainyan have also been consistent in doubles play and are 4-1 as the No. 3s.
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SCOUTING UTAH STATE
Utah State men's tennis has started off the 2020 year with a record of 1-4, with their most recent match coming in a loss against Denver, 1-6. The Aggies finished with an overall record of 19-9 after the 2018-19 season, going 6-1 in Mountain West Conference play. The Aggies are led by senior Sergiu Bucur and junior Felipe Acosta, who hold the No. 1 and No. 2 singles positions. Acosta recorded a team-high 25 singles wins last season.
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SCOUTING IDAHO STATE
The Idaho State men's tennis team has started off their season with a record of 3-1 and are coming off of a 6-1 victory against Colorado Mesa. In 2018-19, the Bengals finished with an overall record of 9-12, which included going 5-5 in Big Sky Conference play. The Bengals are led by sophomore Lukas Ridemar, who currently holds the No. 1 position in both singles and doubles. Last season, Ridemar tallied eight singles wins playing primarily at the No. 4 position.
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LAST TIME OUT
The Utes are coming off of a weekend sweep at the George S. Eccles Tennis Center, where the Utes beat out East Tennessee State, Nevada, and Montana. Utah began the three-match home weekend against a tough East Tennessee State team on Friday.
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The Utes picked up an early 1-0 lead after doubles play, but the Bucs tied the match with a singles win on court six. Wally Thayne and Mathias Gavelin put the Utes in winning position after hard-fought straight set wins. Courts one, two and three were all pushed to third sets before Slava Shainyan ended the dramatic finish with a win on court three to end the match and give the Utes the 4-1 victory.
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The Utes then continued action with two matches on Saturday, earning dominant wins over Nevada and Montana. Utah downed Nevada 6-1 with Benkaim, Shainyan, Gavelin, and Thayne all earning straight-set wins, before the Utes went on to sweep Montana 7-0 in the final match of the weekend. Benkaim and Cory earned doubles wins in both matches, while the duos of Capalbo/Thayne and Hankuliyev/Shainyan each claimed one doubles victory on the day.
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UP NEXT
The Utah men's tennis team will be back in action next week, as they will hit the road for two matches. The Utes will first face off against Denver on Thursday, Feb.13, at 5 p.m. MT. Following the match in Denver, the Utes will travel to Albuquerque, N.M. on Sunday, Feb. 16 to take on the New Mexico Lobos at 1 p.m. MT.Â
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