ORLANDO, Fla. — Pepperdine men's tennis junior Edward Winter's NCAA Singles Championship run ended with a straight-set loss to 6-seed Kenta Miyoshi of Illinois on Wednesday afternoon.
"It was a tough day today," Pepperdine Director of Tennis Adam Schaechterle said. It never felt like Ed found his best mindset and game style. Credit to Illinois and Kenta — they made it tough. Now we work toward the spring!"
For one set, the match between two players with high-quality backhands fit the billing as one of the highly anticipated second-set matches. In a battle between two top-20 players, No. 16 Winter and No. 6 Miyoshi played a close first set, but Miyoshi would prevail in a 7-6 (2) tiebreak. From there, Miyoshi won the second set 6-0.
Miyoshi dealt the first blow by breaking Winter in the first game and maintained the break lead until midway through the first set. On deuce point in Miyoshi's third service game, Miyoshi called a let on a Winter winner when he believed a stray ball rolled into his side of the court. The point was replayed, but the result was the same: Winter let out an emphatic yell and got the break back at 3-3.
That deuce point lit a fire in Winter. The Australian junior was dialed in during his next service game as he held at love with ease. However, Miyoshi responded with a love hold of his own thanks to some difficulty returning his serve and putting away long cross-court exchanges. Eventually, Miyoshi broke Winter in the eleventh game for 6-5 when Winter advanced to the doubles line and misfired on a slice backhand.
But Winter had one more push left in him. After going down 30-0, Winter rallied back to break Miyoshi at deuce to force a tiebreak.
In the breaker, Miyoshi got an early mini-break and didn't look back. The Illinois All-American rattled off the first four points before Winter got on the board en route to winning the first set 7-6 (2).
Although Winter played more aggressively by advancing to the net with abandon, Miyoshi broke Winter in the second game and strung eight straight points to eventually consolidate the break. Miyoshi's serve became difficult to return, plus the Illinois senior hit several overhead winners throughout the rest of the match. He eventually ended Winter's season by breaking the Pepperdine junior one more time for a 7-6 (2), 6-0 straight-set win.
Winter ends his fall campaign with a 3-1 record.
Winter and the Waves look ahead to the 2026 spring season, starting in January. A full schedule is forthcoming. All pertinent links can be found on the men's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
NCAA SINGLES RESULTS
Round 1
No. 16 Edward Winter (PEPP) def. Melchior Delloye (HARVARD) 6-2, 6-3
Round 2
No. 6 Kenta Miyoshi (ILL) def. No. 16 Edward Winter (PEPP) 7-6 (2), 6-0
ABOUT PEPPERDINE MEN'S TENNIS
Pepperdine men's tennis has a longstanding tradition of success, highlighted by an NCAA Championship in 2006, which came 54 years after its first NAIA Championship in 1952. Robbie Weiss recorded the program's first NCAA singles championship in 1988 after the program saw doubles national championships in 1984 and 1985. 44-time WCC Champions, Pepperdine has reached 40 NCAA Tournaments and six NCAA Regionals in its history with 53 total All-Americans.
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