Jarmere Jenkins had experienced what it was like to win by inches. On Monday, he felt the other side of that experience.

In last Tuesday’s team championship match, Jenkins and Virginia were on winning side of a close call where UCLA’s Adrien Puget had his foot touch the net on championship point for the Bruins. Virginia would come back to win four consecutive games and earn the trophy.

In Monday’s singles match, Jenkins let the championship point serve from Ohio State’s Blaz Rola go by, assuming it was out. The linesman ruled the serve in for an ace, and Rola was crowned champion after a 7-6 (8), 6-4 victory. Jenkins frantically pointed to a felt mark on the court about an inch outside the line, but to no avail.

“I’ve been in enough tennis matches to know it looks wide,” Ohio State head coach Ty Tucker said. “But you put people on the lines that haven’t done it before and serve wide. He runs in front of the line, they’ve got no see and the umpire is not going to get involved on the far sideline. It’s tough.”

Even without the missed call, Rola was in good position to take home the title. He won the first set in a back-and-forth tiebreaker 7-6 (8), after he squandered five set points before Jenkins committed a double fault to clinch the set for Rola. The Ohio State southpaw leapt out to a 6-2 lead in the tiebreaker before Jenkins stormed back with five consecutive points to give the Virginia senior a set point of his own at 7-6. Rola would recover and reclaim the lead at 9-8 — Rola’s sixth set point — which led to Jenkins’ double fault.

“He came up with some really good points,” Rola said. “I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, I wasted five set points,’ and thank God I kept my mind relaxed and thank God I got it. It was a crucial point in the match.”

One of the reasons the match was so close was with how well the two players defended their serves. The only break of the match came in the second set when Rola seized control of the match. With the score knotted at 3-3, Jenkins had four game-point opportunities to go back up by a game, but Rola stayed alive and earned the break to go up 4-3.

With the break advantage, Rola was able to serve for the match, which set up the controversy.

“He’s not willing to take 10 percent off the ball to put a little more roll on it,” Tucker said. “He’s in there trying to hit some winners. I think a lot of guys, in the same situation up 7-6, 5-4 serving for the national championship, if they play it any other way they would have gotten their serve broken.”

For Jenkins, the loss ended what could have been a historic tournament for the senior. Virginia won the team championship last week and, along with Mac Styslinger, he competes in the doubles championship Monday afternoon.

As for Rola, he is the first Ohio State singles champion in school history, and the moment hadn’t sunk in after the match.

“For my name to be up there with past champions, it’s overwhelming and unbelievable.” 

Stephen can be reached at [email protected] and @steve_bourbon.