SAN DIEGO, Calif. — The Pepperdine men's tennis doubles team of Maxi Homberg and Edward Winter reached the second round of the ITA National Fall Championships with a straight-set victory at Barnes Tennis Center on Wednesday.
Homberg (Freising, Germany) and Winter (Adelaide, Australia) picked up their eighth win of the year over Mississippi's Nikola Slavic and Lukas Engelhardt with a 6-1, 7-6 (6), straight-set victory. Elsewhere in doubles, Linus Carlsson Halldin (Stockholm, Sweden) and George Davis (London, England) tried mounting a second-set comeback against Wake Forest's Dhakshineswar Suresh and Holden Koons, yet they fell 6-3, 7-6 (4).
With the win, Homberg and Winter will face off against UCF's Lleyton Cronje and Santiago Giamichelle tomorrow at 3 p.m. Carlsson Halldin and Davis will face Washburn's Santiago Rendon and Tim Hammes in the consolation draw tomorrow at 6 p.m.
Homberg and Winter got off to a solid start in the first set. The Waves held serve on deuce point, then rattled off six-straight points to quickly go up 3-0. Mississippi got on the board with an ace in the next set, but the Waves held serve and broke the Rebels once more en route to a 6-1 first-set win.
The second set was a much closer affair.
Both teams played on serve until Pepperdine broke Mississippi on a deuce point to go up 5-4. But Slavic and Engelhardt broke back in the next game, then held serve to take a 6-5 lead. The Waves held serve to force a tiebreak, then fell behind 5-3 when the Rebels broke the Waves on a double fault. Pepperdine would win the next two points to tie the score at five-all, both teams held serve, then Winter's overhead smash at the service line punched Pepperdine's ticket to the second round.
Later that evening, Carlsson Halldin and Davis fell behind to Wake Forest's Dhakshineswar Suresh and Holden Koons by dropping the first set 6-3. Staring at a 4-2 deficit in the second set, the Waves staged a furious comeback with a critical hold, then a breakpoint winner in the next game to knot the set at four games apiece. The Waves would win the next three points, capping off the hold with an ace to take a 5-4 lead. However, the match would play on serve for the next three games to force a tiebreak, which Wake Forest won 7-4.
RESULTS
Doubles First Round
Maxi Homberg/Edward Winter (PEPP) def. Nikola Slavic/Lukas Engelhardt (MISS) 6-1, 7-6 (6)
Dhakshineswar Suresh/Holden Koons (WAKE) def. Linus Carlsson Halldin/George Davis (PEPP) 6-3, 7-6 (4)
THURSDAY'S MATCHES
Doubles Second Round
Maxi Homberg/Edward Winter (PEPP) vs. Lleyton Cronje/Santiago Giamichelle (UCF), 3 p.m.
Consolation Doubles Match
Linus Carlsson Halldin/George Davis (PEPP) vs. Santiago Rendon/Tim Hammes (WASH), 6 p.m.
FOLLOW: Follow @PeppTennis on Facebook and X for immediate updates, results and more. Go to pepperdinewaves.com for all information, releases and schedules.
