AZUSA, CA (March 19, 2026) – The No. 5 Tufts University men's tennis team dropped a hard-fought 4-3 decision to Azusa Pacific University in non-conference action on Thursday.
Tufts fell to 6-2 on the season despite securing the doubles point and picking up two singles victories in a tightly contested match.
The Jumbos opened strong in doubles play, claiming the point with wins at the top two positions. At No. 1 doubles, Alex Ganchev and Sacha Maes earned a 6-3 victory over Soeren Grandke and Mathys Pinoit. Andrej Djokic and Matej Djokic followed with a 6-4 win at No. 2 doubles against David James Brownlee and V. Van Craenenbroeck to give Tufts a 1-0 lead. The No. 3 doubles match went unfinished with Tufts leading 5-4.
Azusa Pacific responded in singles play, winning four of the six matches to secure the team victory. The hosts evened the score at 1-1 with a straight-set win at No. 1 singles, and took a 2-1 lead following a three-set battle at No. 2 singles that was decided in a final-set tiebreaker.
Tufts answered at No. 3 singles as Ganchev delivered a 6-3, 6-4 win over Ben Behrend to tie the match at 2-2.
Azusa Pacific regained the lead with another three-set victory at No. 4 singles, edging Eren Cheung 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 to move ahead 3-2.
The decisive point came at No. 5 singles, where V. Van Craenenbroeck held off Anirudh Dhanwada 6-4, 7-5 to clinch the match for Azusa Pacific.
Matej Djokic closed out the match with a 6-3, 6-2 win at No. 6 singles for Tufts, accounting for the final 4-3 score.
Tufts is back in action tomorrow morning, taking on Pomona-Pitzer in the start of the Stag-Hen Invitational at 9 a.m. PDT.
--JUMBOS--
