LATHAM, NY – The University of Rochester men's tennis team opened up the second semester of competition with an impressive win on Friday, taking down 26th-ranked Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at the Tri-City Fitness Center.
 
The win pushes UR's record to 2-0 on the season, while RPI falls to 0-1 in their first dual match competition of the season.
 
Rochester got off to a strong start, sweeping all three doubles points.  The team of Tanmay Thakkar and Yifan Shen got things started with an 8-6 triumph at #3 over Yudai Teruyama and Eddie Wu.
 
Afterwards, UR's #1 team of Masaru Fujimaki and Runjia Fang made it 2-0 with an 8-5 win over RPI's regionally ranked duo of Sebastian Castillo-Sanchez and Andrew Imrie.
 
The doubles sweep was completed when Pasquale Procaccino and Sahaj Somani earned an 8-3 win over Brian Niguidula and Dylan Payne.
 
Rensselaer looked to get back into the match with strong play in singles, and did so by winning four out of the six points, but Rochester got huge wins from Fujimaki (#1) and Somani (#4) to clinch the match.
 
RPI's Teruyama made quick work of Peter Huang at #6 to put the Engineers on the board, with Niguidula making it two straight for the home team with his win over Shen at #2.
 
Fujimaki then earned his singles win, being one of UR's double-winners on the night, topping nationally ranked #26 player Castillo-Sanchez in 6-3, 7-6 fashion.
 
Imrie then won a tight match at #5 over Procaccino 7-6, 6-3 to make the score 4-3 UR, with the last two matches heading to a third set.
 
Rochester's Somani would earn the clinching point with a 6-0, 5-7, 6-3 win over Clay Thompson at the #4 spot.
 
Payne finished out the 5-4 final score with a 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 win over Thakkar at #3.
 
The Yellowjackets are right back on the courts tomorrow afternoon, taking on another key regional opponent in Vassar College, with first ball at 1 pm.