All-American doubles run ends

FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas men’s tennis standout doubles team of senior Dmitry Lebedev and junior Chris Nott wrapped up a solid performance at the 2009 D’Novo/ITA Men’s All-American Championship held at the Michael D. Case Center Tennis in Tulsa, Okla. The Razorback duo, ranked No. 43 in the ITA preseason rankings, fell 8-4 in a tough loss to the No. 8 tournament seed and No. 13-ranked doubles team Dimitar Kutrovsky and Josh Zavala of Texas in the round of 16.

“It was a successful tournament but disappointing we lost,” Arkansas head coach Robert Cox said. “We did not play our best tennis as we had in our four previous matches.”

Nott and Lebedev claimed unstoppable momentum early in the tournament opening with an 8-5 win over Minnesota’s Dino Bilankov and Sebastian Gallego. The Arkansas duo extended their winning streak defeating Leo Rosenberg and Andreas Weber of Hawaii, 8-2, and topped Jack Roux and Javier Tori of USC-Upstate, winning the match, 8-2. Lebedev and Nott picked up their fourth consecutive win in the round of 32 against the No. 22-ranked duo of Victor Melo and John Peers of Middle Tennessee State, 8-6.

“We gained a lot of confidence playing against the best,” Cox said. “There were a lot of positives and we will take a lot from it.”

The Razorbacks are scheduled to host the Razorback Invitational Oct. 16-18 in Fayetteville, Ark.