The No. 14 Stanford men’s tennis team traveled across the country to Orlando to take part in the Orlando Men’s Regional of the ITA Kickoff Weekend. The Cardinal left the Sunshine state with two wins and a berth in the ITA National Team Indoors Championship, which will be played in mid-February.
First up for Stanford was a matchup against Tulane. The doubles point was locked up thanks to wins at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots from the pairings of sophomore Arthur Fery and senior Alexandre Rotsaert, and fifth-year Axel Geller and senior Tomas Kopczynski, respectively. The No. 31 nationally ranked duo freshman Max Basing and fifth-year Timothy Sah lost at the three spot 6-3 to the Green Wave’s De Alba and Suarez.
After securing the doubles point, the Cardinal needed to win only three of the singles matches to move on to the next round. Geller was the first man off the court, defeating Alex Bancila 6-0, 6-1 at the No. 3 spot in the lineup. Next was senior Sangeet Sridhar, who sliced past his opponent with a scoreline of 6-1, 6-3 playing in the sixth slot. Finally, Fery — the No. 7 singles player in the country — provided the ending for Stanford as he beat Billy Suarez 6-1, 6-4 at the top of the lineup.
With the 4-0 win over Tulane, the Cardinal advanced to the final round of the regional to face host UCF, who had previously defeated Louisville 4-3.
In doubles, Sah and Sridhar were the first off of the courts with a quick 6-1 win at the No. 3. The Knights then pulled one back, winning at the top spot 6-3 over Fery and Rotsaert. The doubles point came down to a tiebreaker on the second court, as Geller and Kopczynski pulled it out 7-6 (4).
The doubles point was now in tow, and Stanford again needed to win only three matches to advance. Sridhar was first off this time, taking down Quinn Snyder 6-1, 6-2 at the bottom of the lineup. Fery then earned a big victory over No. 16 Trey Hilderbrand 6-2, 6-4. To finish off UCF, sophomore Aryan Chaudhary won 6-2, 6-3 at the No. 5.
The Orlando Regional win for the Cardinal secured them a bid to the ITA National Team Indoors Championship, which will be held from Feb. 18-21 in Seattle. Before then, however, Stanford has a few more dual matches to play, including this coming weekend when the Los Angeles schools come to the Farm.
The team will face USC on Saturday at 1 p.m. and then UCLA on Sunday at 1 p.m. Both matches can be watched live in the Taube Family Tennis Center or online via the Stanford Tennis Live Stream.