Greg O’Neil might have played himself right out of the No.1 spot last Saturday.

Although the NIU men’s tennis team (9-8) dismantled Eastern Michigan (3-10) 7-2 at the NIU Recreation Center, O’Neil ended up in the wrong side of a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 score.

The big serves and the big forehands—the main reason he moved ahead of Mats Persson for the top spot—were evident during the long match but only in sparks.

O’Neil fed the Huron’s Mike Sminski eight service winners in the third and decisive set, but gave up four double faults. He slammed 10 winners but had 18 unforced errors.

“I gave him all the points,” O’Neil explained. “I didn’t make him earn anything.”

Each player held serve until the critical seventh game of the final set. At 3-3, Sminski found the timing on O’Neil’s second serve with his backhand and took a 0-30 lead.

O’Neil came right back and pushed two putaways past Sminski to tie it 30-30.

After three deuces, O’Neil double faulted and Sminski took advantage of his only break point hitting a backhand service return winner down the line.

Down 4-5, O’Neil managed to force Sminski into two deuces, but Sminski put the match away with a service winner.

“Boris Becker lost to Patrick McEnroe,” said NIU head coach Charles Merzbacher, citing the big upset at last week’s Player International Tournament. “It’s all desire. How much do you want it?”

Merzbacher pointed to Persson, a 6-1, 6-2 winner over EMU’s Craig Campbell, as the meet’s MVP. “He was focused, and he came out big for us,” Merzbacher said.

So does that mean Persson will retake his No.1 position?

“I’m not going to make any hasty decisions,” Merzbacher said.

While O’Neil and Sminski were bombing away, NIU’s No.4 player Dustin Dobrin was engaged in a baseline and 20-minute verbal battle with the Hurons’ Kurt Thomas.

“I won the match and he thought it was deuce,” Dobrin said. Dobrin came back from a 4-1 first-set deficit and won the match (and the argument) 7-5, 6-0.

NIU captain Erik Andersch made quick work of Mike Ridener 6-0, 6-2, and the Huskies’ No.6 player Paul Gill took care of Alex Sarri 6-3, 6-4. NIU’s Steve Senter lost 6-3, 6-3 to EMU’s Larry Simon.

O’Neil and Andersch beat Sminski and Ridener in the doubles portion 7-5, 6-2 at No.1. Persson and Dobrin knocked off Capelli and Thomas 6-2, 6-2 at No.2, and Senter and Gill handled Simon and Sarri 6-4, 6-3.