CANTON, NY – The University of Rochester men's tennis team opened up its 2025-26 season on Saturday afternoon, competing on day one of the St. Lawrence University Fall Classic.
 
One individual and one doubles team is still alive in main draw competition after Saturday's competition, with all of the Yellowjacket players on the roster seeing action in either singles or doubles play.
 
In the A singles bracket, UR senior Kavin Shukla is still alive, earning two match wins against Jake David of St. Lawrence and second-seeded Yu Tanimoto of RIT. Shukla was an 8-1 winner in the first round and posted a 8-3 victory in the quarterfinals.
 
Also, UR's Rahul Ravi and Alan Wang were A flight singles participants. Ravi won a tight opening round match with seeded Lleyton Mendieta of Hamilton 8-7 (3), but was upended in round two by Hobart's Nick Fischer 8-5. Wang matched up against Villem Aadamsoo of Hamilton in round one and dropped a close match by an 8-6 score.
 
The B flight singles bracket saw two UR players in the draw. Andy Liu was an 8-2 winner over Ryan Tingley of St. Lawrence in the opening round, but lost to RIT's Alex Sinclair 8-3 in the quarters. First-year Aiden Swartz matched up against Akshat Dhull of Hamilton and dropped his contest 8-0 in the opening round.
 
Both Tony Xu and Ethan Samora earned first round wins for the Yellowjackets in the C flight singles draw. Xu dominated MJ Chaho 8-1 in the first round before dropping an 8-4 decision to Tyler Mirovic in the quarterfinals. Samora needed a tiebreak in his opener, defeating Union's Shreyas Kode 8-7 (1), before falling in round two to top-seeded Filip Moller of Hamilton.
 
Rochester's last two singles players in action were Josh Chu and Joseph Xia in the D flight bracket. Xia, the draws number two seed won 8-1 over Christian Crowder of Union in the opening round, but later was upset by Hamilton's Alejandro Fernandez in the quarterfinals by an 8-4 score. Chu had a tough matchup against top-seeded Gabe Escobar and lost in a nail biter, dropping an 8-7 (4) decision.
 
In doubles, only two of Rochester's five teams were able to earn victories on Saturday. The combo of Samora and Swartz reached the semifinals of the B draw, posting an 8-3 win over Hobart and an 8-1 win against St. Lawrence.
 
The other doubles victory was from Ravi and Chu in the A bracket. That team won against a St. Lawrence squad by an 8-4 score, before dropping an 8-7 (0) tiebreaker to a seeded duo from Hamilton.
 
Play at the tournament wraps up on Sunday, with action starting at 9 am.