In its ACC home opener, No. 9 Stanford men’s tennis (9-4, 1-2 ACC) remained perfect against No. 30 Miami (8-2, 2-1 ACC), defeating the Hurricanes 4-0 to secure its first conference victory.

Stanford’s move to the ACC has introduced both novel opponents and a new home tennis facility, adjustments for long-time players like senior Max Basing, who has been with the team since his freshman year.

“It’s a new facility, but it’s nice to have people out in this place. It’s also great to play new opponents, mixing it up from all the Pac-12 schools I’ve faced over the past three years,” Basing said.

The Cardinal took an early lead behind strong performances from its doubles teams. Junior Samir Banerjee and freshman Alex Razeghi cruised to a 6-2 victory on Court 1, while sophomore Kyle Kang and redshirt freshman Nathan Barki clinched the doubles point with a 6-3 win on Court 3.

“Doubles was pretty clean. Samir and I have been playing well recently, and today we put things together and really clicked,” Razeghi said.

Banerjee added: “We struggled with doubles a little at the beginning of the year, but today we combined nicely. We’ve kind of got it figured out now.”

In singles, graduate student Henry von der Schulenburg put Stanford up 2-0, defeating Miami’s Leonardo Dal Boni in straight sets, 6-2 and 6-1. Razeghi followed with another dominant performance on Court 6, winning 6-0 and 6-1.

“I played a good player today. He was a grinder, so I had to pick my shots carefully, be aggressive at the right times, and execute the game plan,” Razeghi said. 

Despite dropping just one game, he expressed some frustration. 

“There were a lot of close games, but in the one I lost, I was up 40-love. Losing that game was annoying, but it made me bring more intensity into the next ones.”

Banerjee praised his teammate’s performance.

“Alex is a freshman, but he’s immediately been an impact player for us, in both singles and doubles,” Banerjee said. 

Finally, Banerjee closed out the sweep on Court 1, having moments of shaky net play but remaining solid from the baseline. He defeated No. 42 Martin Katz by identical 6-4 set scores.

“I played against a tricky, messy guy who didn’t give me much rhythm and made me generate a lot of my own points,” Banerjee said. “Overall, it was good, but I had a couple of mental lapses here and there. Just happy to get the job done.”

Friday’s matchup was Stanford’s first meeting with Miami since the 2007 ITA National Team Indoor Championship. The victory improved the Cardinal’s all-time record against the Hurricanes to 9-0.

Stanford will return to Taupe Pavilion on Sunday at noon for another ACC matchup, hosting No. 25 Florida State (10-4, 2-1 ACC).