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The fourth-ranked Case Western Reserve University men’s tennis team capped off a perfect opening weekend of the spring season with two more 7-0 wins, besting the University of Rochester and RIT in Rochester, New York.
The Spartans improved to 4-0 with the two wins.
In doubles action against Rochester, junior Anmay Devaraj and senior Casey Hishinuma picked up a 6-0 win over Ethan Samora and Krish Vennam at the no. 1 position, while juniors Rohan Bhat and Justin Prochnow secured a 6-4 triumph over Rahul Ravi and Josh Chu at second doubles. In the third doubles match, sophomores Trey Lambright and George Kosseifi bested Alan Wang and Surya Rajamani 6-2.
CWRU went on to win each of the six singles matches as well. Senior Ajay Mahenthiran was leading 6-1, 4-2 in the first singles match before his opponent, Vennam, retired. At no. 2 singles, Kosseifi claimed a 6-1, 6-3 win against Wang, and Devaraj bested Ravi 6-1, 6-2 at no. 3 singles. In the fourth singles match, junior Matthew Plunkett defeated Kavin Shukla 6-4, 6-0, while sophomore Santiago Salazar Garza beat Andy Liu at fifth singles, 6-1, 7-6 (1) and first-year Rowan Matorin completed the sweep with a 6-1, 6-2 win at sixth singles against Chu.
Rochester fell to 1-1 with the loss.
CWRU won all three doubles matches to secure the point in their win over RIT in the second match of the day. Devaraj and Bhat picked up a tiebreaker win over Christian Berko and Grahith Movva at no. 1 doubles, 7-6 (1), while first-year Leon Chen and Salazar Garza handed Alex Turcotte and Luke Weber a 6-4 setback in the second doubles match. At third doubles, Mahenthiran and Hishinuma claimed a 6-2 win against Gabriel Escobar and Alexander Sinclair.
The no. 1 singles match between Mahenthiran and Yu Tanimoto was the only one to go three sets, with Mahenthiran pulling off a 2-6, 6-0, 7-5 come-from-behind win. Kosseifi claimed a 6-1, 6-2 triumph over Movva at second singles, and at third singles Hishinuma cruised past Turcotte 6-0, 6-1. Salazar Garza added a 6-1, 6-2 win over Joel Pho at fourth singles, and first-year Konrad Kwiatkowski won by an identical score at fifth singles over Sinclair. In the sixth singles match, first-year Rowan Matorin won 6-2, 6-0 against Tyler Mitrovic.
RIT dropped to 3-1 with the setback.
CWRU will look to maintain its hot start to the season when it returns home for four matches next weekend, facing Wayne State and Northwestern Ohio on Friday and Hope and 21st-ranked Carnegie Mellon on Saturday at the Mayfield Village Racquet Club.
Spartan Notes
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CWRU has swept each of its first four dual matches of the spring season. The Spartans singles players are a combined 24-0, while the doubles pairings finished the weekend with a 12-0 record.
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This was the second consecutive season that the Spartans have opened their campaign with a 4-0 record.
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Eleven different Spartan players won at least one singles match during the team’s four contests this weekend, including five players – Hishinuma, Kosseifi, Mahenthiran, Matorin, and Salazar Garza – who went 3-0 in singles contests.
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Eleven different CWRU players also claimed at least one doubles win over the course of the weekend. Bhat led all Spartans with four doubles wins, improving to 7-4 in doubles play this year, while Devaraj, Hishinuma, and Prochnow each won three doubles matches.
