Nelly Knezkova shines for Syracuse tennis in a 4-3 win over Florida State

Tennis is often labeled as a marathon, not a sprint. And although that’s certainly true in today’s match as Syracuse (8-3, 1-3 in ACC) beat Florida State (10-2, 1-1 in ACC) 4-3, one moment defined the entire duel. Tied at three games a piece in a deciding third set, sophomore Nelly Knezkovavwas down 40-15 before rallying to win three straight points and win the game. The Hawaii transfer would go onto not drop a game win, six three, and ultimately give Syracuse its first win in conference of the season. 

Syracuse head coach Younes Limam:

“Giving her just a few very simple things. Where to serve and just giving her some patterns. It’s not that way. She’s focusing more on the patterns instead of ‘oh my goodness, it’s three all. If I win, if I lose this and that.’ So really proud of her, how she stayed in the present and she didn’t really look ahead and just took care of one point at a time.”

Nelly Knezkova:

“But you cannot show it to your opponent. Of course I was cramping and really felt like I’m carrying another person on my back, but it’s yeah, we get good recovery and back to where it comes back.”

And how can you blame her? Syracuse has now played over seven hours of tennis in just the last three days alone. The two matches against Florida State and Miami were the longest two matches of the season, and just happened to be back to back. Lucky for the ‘Cuse though, there is some time to rest their legs before a contest against Stanford this Friday.