ORLANDO, Fla. – Louis Cloud won the last three games of the third set, including the last nine points of the match, to break a 3-3 tie in the team score and give SMU a 4-3 win against Tulane in the final of the American Athletic Conference Men's Tennis Championship at the USTA National Campus.
 
SMU (18-13), which won its second consecutive American title, earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Men's Tennis Championships.
 
Pranav Kumar was chosen as the tournament's Most Outstanding Performer after he was a combined 5-1 in singles and doubles, including singles victories in all three Mustang wins.
 
Kumar delivered a three-set win at No. 4 singles to spark SMU's run to close the match as his 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory tied the match at 3-3.
 
That result sent all eyes to the No. 6 court, where Cloud dropped the first set 6-4 to Tulane's Sam Scherer, but came back to take the second set 6-2. The players held serve through the first seven games of the third set until Cloud got a key break on four consecutive points to go ahead 5-3 and served out on the next four points to complete a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory.
 
Tulane had built a 3-2 lead after Luc Hoeijmans took a 6-1, 7-6 (4) win at No. 3 singles and Fynn Kuenkler scored a three-set win at No. 2.
 
The Mustangs had captured the doubles point with wins at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions and led 2-1 after Adam Neff won at No. 1 singles to offset a victory at No. 5 by Tulane's Rafael de Alba.
 
Neff and Kumar finished with wins in both singles and doubles for the Mustangs, who became the lowest seeded team to win The American Championship. The Mustangs were the No. 4 seed in the tournament and defeated the No. 1 (Memphis) and No. 2 (Tulane) seeds on their way to the title.
 
Tulane fell to 15-10 with the loss. The Green Wave will hope for an at-large selection to the NCAA Championship when the bracket is announced May 1.