PALM SPRINGS, CA (March 20, 2023) -- The No. 5 Tufts University men's tennis team had its match with No. 9 Johns Hopkins University moved twice, but finally was able to play the Blue Jays in Palm Springs Monday afternoon and earned a hard-fought 6-3 win to move to 4-0 on the season.
The Jumbos took a 1-0 lead early in the match in a battle of two of the best doubles squads in the nation, as the No. 2 ranked duo of
Vuk Vuksanovic and
Derin Acaroglu from Tufts was able to outlast James and Thomas Yu 8-5. The JHU tandem was ranked No. 3 in Division III coming into the match.
At No. 2 doubles,
Josh Belandres and
Rishabh Sharda bested George Jiang and Joe DeMarco 8-6 to double the Tufts lead to 2-0. Hopkins would avoid the sweep though at No. 3 doubles, as Mason Liu and Jonathan Zhang bested
Alex Ganchev and
Jack Moldenhauer 8-6.
Singles action would be just as competitive as doubles play, as first-year
Javier Gonzalez put the Jumbos up 3-1 with a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 5 singles. Gonzalez is now 3-1 on the season, and has won the last three singles matches he's played.
Alex Ganchev, who is ranked No. 44 in the nation in singles, pulled a mini-upset at No. 23 as he rolled past No. 23 ranked Mason Liu 6-1, 6-1 at the No. 3 spot to put Tufts up 4-1. The winning point would come next as Acaroglu knocked off James Yu 6-4, 6-1 to clinch the victory for the Jumbos. Acaroglu is now 4-0 on the season in dual matches.
At No. 1 singles, Sharda and Thomas Yu played a thriller that went to a super-tiebreaker. Sharda topped Yu 6-1 in the first set, but Hopkins' top player and No. 6 ranked player in the country came back with a 6-2 win in the second. In the super-tiebreaker, Yu outlasted Sharda 10-8 to earn the victory.
Zhang knocked off Vuksanovic at No. 2 singles with scores of 6-4, 7-6 (5), but Belandres came back to best Daniel Adrila at No. 6 singles to finish the match with scores of 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4).
The victory was the third-straight win for Tufts over a Top 10 team, having defeated No. 4 Middlebury College 6-3 and No. 6 Williams College 7-2. Tufts will continue the ranked matches Tuesday afternoon, taking on University of Redlands at 5 p.m. local time.
--JUMBOS--
