SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – The University of Rochester men's tennis team posted nearly a .500 record on the opening day of play at the ITA Northeast Regional Championships on Friday at Skidmore College.
 
Overall, the Yellowjackets piled up 10 victories and had 11 losses in the competition featuring two draws of both singles and doubles play. Ten different Rochester players represented the school at the tournament.
 
URochester had four individuals qualify for the A singles main draw competition, with two of those, Rahul Ravi and Andy Liu earning first round wins. Ravi won 6-2, 6-4 over Pierre Boullenger of NYU and Liu topped Skidmore's Kyle Lundberg 6-0, 6-2 to advance. Both players lost close three-set affairs in the second round. Ravi fell to RPI's Gustave Viennet 4-6, 6-2, 6-10, while Simon Philip of Union ended Liu's tournament with a 6-7, 6-3, 10-7 win.
 
Also, playing for UR in the main draw of the A flight were Kavin Shukla and Alan Wang. Shukla dropped a 6-1, 6-4 decision to Nika Mori of Skidmore, while Wang was defeated by Joshua David of St. Lawrence in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3.
 
The Yellowjackets also saw some success in the B flight singles bracket. Tony Xu made the deepest run of any singles player, reaching the semifinals after two wins. He opened with a 6-4, 6-4 triumph over Filip Glov Moeller of Hamilton and later defeated Aiden Arti of RPI 3-6, 6-3, 10-3 to reach the semifinals. In the third round, Daniel Saxe ended the UR first-year's run with a 6-4, 6-4 win.
 
Saxe, of Union, also matched up with Joseph Xia in round one of the B draw and earned a three-set win by a 6-4, 6-7 (4), 10-6 score. In the consolation bracket, Xia topped Bard's Ivan Borshchev 8-2 to continue his tournament into Saturday.
 
UR's Ethan Samora also competed in in the B draw singles bracket and fell in three sets in the opening round to Alejandro Fernandez of Hamilton 1-6, 6-4, 10-8. Samora rebounded with a nice 8-3 victory in the consolation bracket.
 
During doubles play, the Yellowjackets sent two teams to compete in both the A and B flights. Rochester's Ravi and Josh Chu are still alive in the main draw of the B bracket after posting an 8-1 win over Bard in the opening round. During the second round, their opponents from Union withdrew due to injury, moving the Rochester duo into Saturday's semifinal round.
 
The B draw also saw Xia and Aiden Swartz compete, falling 8-4 to RPI in the first round before earning an 8-6 win against a Union team during the consolation round.
 
Both A draw doubles teams fell in their opening rounds of the main draw. Surya Rajamani and Wang were defeated 8-4 by a team from Ithaca and lost 8-2 in their second match during the consolation round to a pair from Baruch.
 
Xu and Samora matched up against the #3 seed from NYU and battled hard, falling 8-6 in the opening round of the main draw. Later in the day, the duo responded with a strong 8-2 win during the consolation round against a team from Union.
 
Play on day two begins at 9 am on Saturday.