ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's tennis team will make its fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance this weekend when it faces Arkansas at TCU's Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center on Friday, May 1 at 2 p.m. CT. With a win, the Big Red would advance to meet either Denver or host and sixth-seeded TCU in the second round.
The matchup is a rematch of the 2024 NCAA first round, also played in Fort Worth, where Cornell earned a 4-0 sweep before falling to TCU in the second round. Arkansas enters with added emotion after announcing the program will be discontinued following the 2025-26 season.
Cornell (18-3), the Ivy League champion and No. 29 in the latest ITA rankings, carries momentum into the tournament with 13 wins in its last 14 matches, including nine over ranked opponents. The Big Red owns ranked victories over Louisville, Yale, Penn (twice), Memphis, Middle Tennessee, Princeton and Columbia.
Head coach Silviu Tanasoiu, the program's all-time wins leader, enters the weekend at 204-109 (.652) with two Ivy titles and five NCAA appearances. Before his arrival in 2011, Cornell had just one Ivy title and one NCAA berth since Ivy play began in 1956.
Sophomore Rodrigo Fernandes, ranked No. 62 nationally, leads the lineup with a 23-10 record at the top spot, coming off a three-set win over two-time NCAA singles champion Michael Zheng of Columbia. Eric Verdes (11-9) and Petar Teodorovic (14-10) have anchored the upper half, while Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar (23-5), Felipe Pinzon (15-8) and Aman Sharma (11-9) provide depth. In doubles, Senthil Kumar and Rushil Khosla are 19-5, while NCAA qualifiers Pinzon and Teodorovic are 20-3. Fernandes and Verdes add a 10-7 mark, with all three pairs earning national rankings this season.
Arkansas (16-14), ranked No. 38 under the direction of head coach Jay Udwadia, enters on a four-match skid - all against NCAA Tournament teams. Jakub Vrba leads the Razorbacks at No. 18 nationally in singles, while the doubles pair of Eric Padgham and Ben Weintraub is ranked No. 30. The teams have split two all-time meetings since 2019, including Cornell's win in last year's NCAA Tournament.
