Junior Matthew Danielson advanced to the Singles C Flight Finals at the Middlebury Invitational, highlighting a strong opening weekend for the Bates men's tennis team.
Danielson (St. Petersburg, Fla.) opened play Saturday with a 6-4, 6-1 victory in the first round over Skidmore's Nika Mori. He followed that up with a 6-2, 6-4 upset win over fourth seed Bryce Burnham of RPI in the quarterfinals.
On Sunday, he defeated Brandeis University's Hunter Levine in the semifinals by a count of 7-6 (3), 6-1. Danielson's run finally ended in the C Flight championship match, as he fell to Tufts University's Corey Marley, 6-3, 6-1.
Senior Teddy Koide (Morristown, N.J.) also competed in the Singles C Flight, upsetting two-seed Nathan Jackson of host Middlebury in the first round by a count of 6-1, 6-3. Koide fell 6-3, 7-5 in the quarterfinals to Aaron Bayse of Brandeis.
Moving one step up the ladder, junior Alexander Gujarathi (Plymouth, Mass.) upended top seed Aarush Ganji in the first round of the B Singles Flight, rallying from a set down to win 3-6, 6-4, 10-7. After the dramatic win over Ganji, Gujarathi's run ended in the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-4 loss to Colby's Jan Wenger.
In the D Singles Flight, sophomore Paul Zhou (Beijing, China) earned a bye to the quarterfinals, where he defeated RPI's Phoenix Tamoki in a three-set battle, 6-7 (6), 6-3, 10-4. Zhou's run ended in the semifinals with a 6-3, 6-1 loss to the top seed Lachie Macintosh of Tufts University, who went on to win the flight.
Danielson's success carried over to Doubles, where he teamed with senior Leo Kupferman (Montclair, N.J.) to win their first-round match in the A Flight, by a count of 8-7 (4). Koide and senior Nick Forester (Falmouth, Maine) also won their first-round A Flight Doubles match, prevailing 8-3. But the dream of a Bates battle in the semifinals came to an end with both Bobcat doubles teams falling in the quarterfinals.
In the Doubles B Flight, junior Nikesh Desai (Hopkinton, Mass.) teamed with first-year Theophile Sardain (Lawrenceville, N.J.) and the pair advanced all the way to the semifinals before falling to the eventual winners of the flight. Zhou and senior Liam Dun (Hopewell, N.J.) had success as well, winning their first-round B Flight Doubles match.
The men's tennis team's fall schedule continues this weekend at the ITA New England Championship, hosted by Bowdoin College.
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