From University of Rochester Athletics
The University of Rochester men's tennis team stacked up 12 singles victories and six doubles triumphs on the opening day of the SLU Fall Classic hosted by St. Lawrence University on Saturday, opening up its 2023-24 season.
Overall, five Yellowjacket singles players and two doubles teams went unbeaten, moving onto the semifinal rounds of their respective draws.
Junior Krish Vennam led the way, going 4-0 over both singles and doubles play. Vennam played in the A singles draw and earned wins over Alec Turcotte (RIT) and Adam Heilbronner (St. Lawrence) by 8-5 and 8-4 scores to reach the semis. In doubles, he paired with Josh Chu for 8-5 and 8-7 (8) wins. The Yellowjacket combo won over teams from St. Lawrence and RIT.
Both Kavin Shukla and Rahul Ravi reached the semifinals in the B singles bracket. Ravi won by retirement in the opening round and topped second-seeded Gijs Fidler of Ithaca 8-5 in the quarterfinals. Shukla reached the semifinals after dispatching SLU's Ben Moolman 8-5 and RIT's Verosh Jayanetti 8-4.
It was a similar scenario in the C singles flight as both David Riccio and Ethan Samora won two matches. Riccio defeated Brian Bork, a seeded player from RIT 8-3 in the round of 16 before winning 8-2 against Ean Lantzy (Ithaca). Samora, the bracket's third seed, won 8-5 over Jimin Woo (Ithaca) in round one and topped Max Chang (RIT) 8-1 in the second round.
During the B doubles flight, Rochester's pair of Alex Kulvivat and Surya Rajamani went 2-0 reaching the semifinals winning over two teams from Ithaca. The sophomore pair won 8-3 in the round of 16 before needed to win 8-6 in the quarters.
Other doubles teams that picked up wins were Kai Yuminaga and Samora in the A flight and the B flight team of Shukla and Ravi. Both of those pairings won first round matches before falling in the second match.
During the D flight of singles, both Rajamani and Ahaan Malhotra also went 1-1 on the day, posting wins during the opening round before dropping quarterfinal contests.