Men's Tennis to Compete for Titles at Middlebury on Sunday

MIDDLEBURY, VT - The Tufts University men's tennis team opened its 2022-23 season on Saturday with much success at the Middlebury Invitational. Four Jumbos in singles and four doubles pairs moved on to Sunday's semifinals.

In the A bracket, Tufts #2 seed Rishabh Sharda earned a 6-0- 6-2 final over Bates College's Cam Kania in the 16-man opening round. He then won in the quarterfinals against Joey Barrett from Colby 7-5, 6-2. Sharda will play Andy Zhu of RPI in the semis tomorrow.

The B singles bracket saw two wins by Jumbo freshman Alex Ganchev on Saturday. In his collegiate debut he had a win over Brandeis' Pony Liang (6-1, 6-2). Ganchev then faced Aidan Kwong from Colby in the quarterfinals and won 6-2, 6-0 to earn a spot into the semifinals. His opponent will be 2-seed Julian Wu from Middlebury.

Junior Corey Marley will represent the Jumbos in C singles. He defeated Sid Srinivasa of RPI 6-2, 7-5 (3), then topped Haidyn Green from Brandeis in a tie-breaker. The scores were 6-4, 1-6, 10-5. Marley and Aaron Bayse of Brandeis will comprise one of the C semis.

In D singles, after an opening-round bye Tufts sophomore #1 seed Lachie Macintosh won a quarterfinal match against Skidmore's Jude Ogilvie 6-1, 6-3. The Jumbo sophomore advances to the semis and a match versus Paul Zhou from Bates on Sunday.    

The fourth-seeded A doubles duo of Sharda/Ganchev and Tufts' Vuk Vuksanovic/Derin Acaroglu combo both won twice on Saturday. The Sharda-Ganchev victories were against Dylan Walters and Tommy Harrison of Brandeis (8-6) and the Middlebury team of Julian Wu and Zihao Yuan (8-0). For Vuksanovic and Acaroglu, they advanced past A doubles three-seed Robby Ward/Neel Epstein from Middlebury 8-2, and over Leo Kupferman and Matthew Danielson from Bates 8-5.

In the B doubles competition, Tufts' #1 pair of junior Mauricio Gutierrez and freshman Sacha Maes had a first-round bye and then got past Bates College's Paul Zhou and Liam Dun 8-2. Macintosh and Marley are also still alive in the bracket after an 8-5 win against NIka Mori and Jude Ogilvie from Skidmore, and then an 8-4 victory against Haidyn Green and Aaron Bayse from Brandeis. 

Sunday's doubles action will include Jumbos Sharda/Ganchev playing #1 seed Aiden Drover-Mattinen/Andy Zhu from RPI, and Vuksanovic and Acaroglu facing Simon Kauppila/Hunter Levine in A's. The B semifinals will have Tufts' Gutierrez/Maes versus Bryce Burnham/Jonathan McMillian (RPI), and Macintosh with Marley taking on Bates' Nikesh Desai/Theophile Sardain.