CANTON, NY – The University of Rochester men's tennis team had a highly successful start to the competition at the St. Lawrence University Fall Classic Tournament on Saturday afternoon, securing 14 total wins across the six flights of singles and doubles competition.
 
Overall, six singles players and two doubles teams went unbeaten on the day, staying alive for main draw titles as day one of competition came to a close.
 
Both of Rochester's A flight singles players went 2-0, reaching that bracket's semifinals. Kavin Shukla topped Ithaca's Gijs Fidler 8-5 and followed that up with an 8-6 win over 4th-seeded Yu Tanimoto of RIT. His second round win was by an 8-6 score.
 
Teammate Krish Vennam, the bracket's 2nd-seeded player defeated Arhan Gupta of Union 8-3 in the opening round before winning 8-4 over Hobart's Nick Grosso to cruise into the semifinals.
 
During the B flight singles bracket, UR had three entrants, with two making the semifinals. Ethan Samora won 8-4 over St. Lawrence's John Hill-Edgar and earned a walkover victory in the next round after his opponent could not play due to injury.
 
Alan Wang added an opening round 8-5 upset over 4th-seeded Ben Jacobs from Union to UR's win total on the day. In the quarters, Wang upended Hamilton's Anson Anderson by the same score to reach the next round. Wang will square off with Samora in the semifinals, assuring Rochester will have a B flight finalist.
 
Rahul Ravi also competed in the B flight, but was edged by Achilleas Kousaridis of Hobart by an 8-5 score in round one.
 
In C flight singles play, Andy Liu made the semifinals after a pair of victories. He won 8-6 over Troy Steiner (Hobart) in round one before besting Union's Solen Bellemare 8-5 in round two.
 
Elsewhere in the C flight, Surya Rajamani fell to Union's Vivaan Gupta 8-4 in the opening round of play.
 
Rochester has another semifinalist in the D singles bracket, with Josh Chu posting two wins on Saturday. He opened with an upset over 3rd-seeded Shreyas Kode of Union, winning a tight affair 8-7 (4). In the quarterfinals, he won 8-5 in a match against Brian Bork of RIT.
 
Teammate Liam Rieger also was a D singles player and dropped his opening round match 8-6 against Michael Chaho of host St. Lawrence.
 
In doubles, two of UR's three teams in the B flight reached the second round. Ravi and Chu won in dominating fashion over a team from St. Lawrence, as the UR combo won 6-0. Eitan Fay and Joseph Xia also won in their first round, posting a 6-3 score against a team from St. Lawrence.
 
Rochester's other B doubles team, Ahaan Malhotra and Shukla were upended in their first match, falling 6-3 against a Union team.
 
The A flight doubles bracket is the lone flight in which Rochester will not have a main draw representative still alive on Sunday's day two.
 
Both Samora and Liu along with Wang and Vennam were defeating in their opening round matches. Samora and Liu fell 6-4 against Hamilton, while another Hamilton pair ended the tournament of Wang and Vennam, winning 6-3 over Rochester.