No. 12 Stanford men’s tennis (18-6, 5-3 Pac-12) kicked off the NCAA tournament weekend strong with a dominating 4-0 win over the Fresno State Bulldogs (18-10, 5-2 Mountain West) at Taube Family Tennis Stadium this afternoon. The Cardinal started off strong, winning the first set in all six singles matches.
Senior captain Sameer Kumar and sophomore Timothy Sah were the headliners of the day, grabbing one win each in singles and another together as a doubles duo. They were first off the courts with a 6-0 win over Pech/Durkas that capped off with a commanding forehand volley by Kumar.
Sah earned Stanford’s second win, taking down sophomore Cem Erturk (6-1, 6-1) before Kumar increased the Cardinal lead to 3-0 with a victory over senior Jeremy Moser (6-0, 6-2).
Freshman Sangeet Sridhar made his tournament debut a memorable one, clinching the first-round win for the Cardinal after defeating junior Catagay Soke (6-1, 6-3).
The Cardinal will take on UC Santa Barbara (17-6, 5-0) in the second round tomorrow. The Gauchos defeated the Texas Tech Red Raiders (15-12, 2-3 Big-12) with a score of 4-1 in their first-round match earlier today.
UCSB is riding a seven-game win streak, and mirrored the Cardinal’s performance in many tightly contested matches against Pac-12 opponents throughout the season. Both Stanford and UCSB defeated Washington with a score of 4-1, and Oregon with a score of 4-3.
Contact Shan Reddy at rsreddy ‘at’ stanford.edu.