University of Arizona men’s left-handed tennis player Andres Arango found a way to win Wednesday.
“Ugly, ugly win,” said Arango after beating Northwestern freshman Tobias Reitz 6-4, 6-3 in a match that was tougher than the score indicated.
He helped No. 20-ranked Wildcats win their 13th straight match, 4-3 at home.
Northwestern, whose mascot is also the Wildcats, won the catfight for the doubles point in three 9-7 outcomes.
Arizona’s No. 1 doubles team of Francois VanderMerwe and Pat Metham won their match.
But Arango and Andres Carrasco lost in No. 2 doubles as did the No. 3 team of Jay Goldman and Ola Bakke.
Goldman, 8-3 on the season, went on to easily dispatch Marc Dwyer in No. 1 singles 6-1, 6-2 as UA won four of six singles.
But freshman Jason Zafiros’ first loss of the season after 15 wins at No. 6 singles.
Arango wasn’t in much of an engaging mood after his duo’s comeback failed in doubles, which are played before the singles.
Steamed at himself, he became more and more vocal until after a nice return glanced the doubles line but Reitz called it out with no rebuttal from the referee.
He switched his anger to his opponent, and ended up getting docked a point for yelling at Reitz.
But Arango managed to get his game together despite erratic serving and his twisting low shots catching too much net.
“A little bit of drama,” Arango laughed afterward.
“It was cheating but it doesn’t matter. It’s over. I can relax.”
When Arango’s top-spin shots did work, it left his opponent in a bad position.
“Sometimes a left-hander has an advantage, other times not,” Arango said.
“Today I think it bothered him.”