CLAREMONT, CA (March 31, 2026) - The Tufts University men's tennis team, recently ranked No. 5 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings, had one of the best days in program history Saturday as it knocked off both No. 11 Babson College and No. 1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges to finish the Stag-Hen Invitational 3-0 while handing CMS its first loss of the 2025-26 season.
Match 1: Tufts 4, Babson 1
Friday's match with Babson in the second round of the Stag-Hen Invite was started but hot temperatures forced the postponement of single's action, as Babson earned the doubles' point before the stoppage.
With the Jumbos down 1-0 heading to singles, Tufts would get four victories in the individual portion of action while the last two matches were abandoned after the match had been decided.
The Jumbos picked up four wins in straight sets over the Beavers, as Tufts got a 6-4, 6-1 win over senior
Alex Ganchev at the No. 2 spot, while junior
Garv Bahl was strong in a 6-4, 6-4 win over Sebastian Mendoza at No. 3. The win for Ganchev was his fifth straight for the spring, while Bahl improved to 6-2 in dual matches.
Sophomore
Kaetan Mehta cruised to a 6-2, 6-3 victory at No. 5 in the first match of the day, and
Stavros Mastrogamvrakis knocked off Rishi Batlanki 6-4, 6-1 to help clinch the victory.
Andrej Djokic was leading 7-6, 3-2 when his match at No. 1 was stopped, while
Sacha Maes was in the third set with Maxim Zlobinsky when that was also ended early.
Match 2: Tufts 4, CMS 3
The highly anticipated title match of the Stag-Hen Invitational featured the top-ranked Stags of CMS and Tufts, as these two teams have played some thrillers over the last four years.
In doubles, CMS (15-1) took the first two matches by senior
Javier Gonzalez and
Andrej Djokic earned a 7-5 win over Josh Kim and Sibi Raja. The clinching point for CMS was at No. 1 as Advik Mareedu and Caleb Settles knocked off Maes and Ganchev 6-3.
Tufts got back into the match as Djokic picked up a straight-set win at No. 2 as he rolled to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Warren Pham. The Stags regained the lead with a win at No. 5, but Bahl earned his team-leading 10th win of the 2025-26 season as he rallied for a thrilling 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 win at the No. 4 position to make it 2-2.
Tufts went back ahead thanks to a big win at No. 3 singles as Ganchev upped his mark to 7-2 with a 6-3, 6-4 triumph to make it 3-2 in favor of the Jumbos.
Mareedu evened the match at three with a three-set win over Gonzalez for CMS, as he won a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 marathon at No. 1.
The deciding point came at No. 6, as the hero for Tufts came in the form of sophomore
Eren Cheung. Down a set after a 6-2 loss in the opening stanza, Cheung rallied to take the second set 6-3 to even the match. The third set went to a tiebreaker, and Cheung controlled the breaker to clinch the match for Tufts with a 7-1 victory.
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Tufts will now have a week off before taking on Hamilton College in New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) play on Voute Courts Saturday, March 28 at noon.
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