ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cornell men's tennis team will head to Kentucky for its first of four straight weekends on the road when it battles Louisville on Friday, Feb. 9, at 5 p.m. from the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center.
LAST TIME OUT: BIG RED SWEEPS OPENING WEEKEND AT REIS
The Big Red will look to keep its undefeated record intact after sweeping its four opponents at the Reis Tennis Center to open the 2024 spring season. Cornell opened its schedule by defeating Niagara (6-1) and Buffalo (7-0) on Saturday, Jan. 27, before turning around on Sunday to take down St. John's (6-1) and Le Moyne (7-0) to close out the weekend slate.
Cornell swept all its double matches on the weekend, with two tandems leading the way. Junior Radu Papoe and freshman Eric Verdes debuted for the first time this spring with a 3-0 record, all coming from the No. 1 position. Senior Samuel Paquette and sophomore Petar Teodorovic also put together a 3-0 showing, including a 6-4 victory over Martin Bugaj and Carl Gustavsson of St. John's to close the weekend.
The singles side of the coin also saw a strong performance, putting forward a combined 21-3 record. The underclassmen led the way record-wise. Freshman Felipe Pinzon earned a 3-0 record in his first spring opener, with each coming in straight sets. Aman Sharma also put forward a 3-0 record, with two of his wins coming from the No. 1 position. The sophomore arguably also had the most entertaining match of the weekend against Le Moyne's Peter Hatton, rebounding from a 4-6 opening set loss to earn the victory in three (4-6, 6-4, 12-10). Freshman Eric Verdes also impressed in his first spring action for the Big Red, earning two straight-sets victories to finish the opening weekend at 2-0.
INSIDE THE OPPONENT: LOUISVILLE
The Cardinals have not been a frequent opponent on the Big Red's schedule, as both teams have only faced off two times. Both have split the two matches, with the most recent one favoring the Big Red, 4-0, in Iowa City on March 7, 2020.Louisville comes into the weekend 4-2 after falling to in-state rival No. 16 Kentucky, 6-1, on Friday, Feb. 2. Natan Rodrigues picked up the lone point in No. 2 singles with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) victory over Kentucky's Joshua Lapadat. Louisville's two ranked players also suffered losses, as No. 16 Etienne Donnet fell to Taha Baadi in straight sets (6-3, 7-6, (7-5)), while No. 56 Will Mayew lost a heartbreaking three-set battle (3-6, 7-5, 6-3) to the Wildcats' Jaden Weekes at No. 4 singles.
RANKED PLAYERS THIS WEEKEND
Radu Papoe comes into the week ranked No. 33 in the latest ITA rankings for singles, while the doubles tandem of Felipe Pinzon and Samuel Paquette slide into No. 42 in doubles. Louisville also saw some shuffling in singles as Etienne Donnet fell from No. 16 to No. 34, while Will Mayew slipped five spots from No. 56 to No. 61. Louisville does have a new doubles tandem in the top 60, as Donnet and Natan Rodrigues rose from unranked to No. 50.
UP NEXT
Cornell will stay on the road when it heads to Massachusetts for the 2024 ECAC Indoor Championships hosted by Harvard. The three-day event will run from Friday, Feb. 16 - Sunday, Feb. 18.
