The Oregon men’s tennis team welcomed UNLV to the Student Tennis Center Sunday and swept the Rebels 7-0. The matches were closer than the score lines appear, as three games were decided by tie breakers. Senior Robin Cambier was part of two of them and left Alex Rovello’s court on Sunday afternoon tied for the most singles wins in Oregon history.
After Daan Maasland and Joey Swaysland dominated Willie Sublette and Ozzy Abraham in doubles, the Rebels needed to win the remaining two doubles matches to get the point. On court one it looked as if the Rebels were going to get the better of Oregon duo Kevin Farin and Cambier. The doubles partners were at once down four sets to one and five sets to two.However, the Brussels, Belgium natives found a way to force a tiebreaker game in which they would win 7-3 to complete the 8-7 come-from-behind win. Daniel Sardu and Jayson Amos also had a tiebreaker game but were unable to close out their match after the tiebreaker was finally settled at 11-13 in favor of UNLV. But Oregon was able to earn the doubles point by already securing two wins.
In singles play most of Oregon’s players were able to control their games. Jayson Amos dominated in the five spot, beating Sublette 6-0, 6-4. Brent Chin, who doesn’t normally get much playing time, proved to be well deserving of the call. Chin overwhelmed Abraham 6-1, 6-1 in the sixth singles position. Swaysland ousted his opponent Dimitar Petrov 6-1, 6-2. It was quickly understood that Oregon controlled the overall match against UNLV.
“Everybody played really good. We got some quick sets,” Cambier said about his teammates.
Kevin Farin played well against UNLV’s Denys Pume. Farin surrendered only three sets to Pume when it was all said and done, winning 6-2, 6-1. With all his teammates finished and watching his match, Cambier was locked in a battle with UNLV’s star player, Ace Matias. Matias was ranked No. 76 in the ITA Preseason Singles rankings.
Matias took Cambier to another tie-breaking set where Cambier once again found a way to win 7-3. The second set it seemed that Cambier had more control than the previous set. But Matias fought back and forced the fourth tiebreaker set of the day. Cambier wasn’t as dominating in the second tie-breaking set as Matias continued to match Cambier point-for-point. The set and match would eventually be settled when Cambier shut the door winning 8-6 and 7-6, 7-6 for the match, putting his name in Oregon’s record books. But Cambier is focused more on the team than his personal achievements.
“It’s awesome,” Cambier said. “But if I would have lost we still would have gotten the team win so I would have cared less about the loss.”
Cambier tied two time All-American Sven Swinnen’s all-time singles wins record at 84. Cambier is now 17-2 on the season and will have a chance to break the record on Friday against Washington. Head coach Nils Schyllander attributes Cambier’s wins count to his consistency and is happy that he will have the chance to break it against Washington. As Oregon’s biggest rival in tennis, Washington makes to be the perfect matchup to break Swinnen’s record for Cambier. As a freshman, Cambier told his coach that one day Oregon will beat Washington and that hasn’t happened yet in his years here, but Friday Cambier is hoping to soon fulfill his word.
Follow Andrew Bantly on Twitter @abant3