By Dylan Balsamo
To begin its season, the Fordham men’s tennis team travelled to Hamden, Connecticut for an invitational at Quinnipiac University. The team opened its season with a bang and found success in both the singles and doubles competitions.
The A singles group saw two Rams advance to the Round of 16: junior Fabian Hansch Mauritzson and sophomore Lutwin de Macar, who took down Jack McLister of UConn 6-3, 6-7(2), 10-7. Both advanced to the Round of 16, where Mauritzson bested Ali Mooraj in two sets, 7-5, 6-1, but Macar was defeated by Andrew Finkleman of Wesleyan 6-1, 6-1.
Maurizson wound up falling to Quinnipiac’s own Aleksa Martinovic 6-3, 7-5 in the quarterfinal, ending Fordham’s A side campaign for the weekend in the quarterfinals.
The singles B side saw Fordham’s lone representative in the section also lose to a hometown hero. After beating Evan Powell of UConn 6-2, 6-4, sophomore Alex Makatsaria lost in the Round of 16 to Alester Magalit of Quinnipiac 4-6, 6-2, 10-2.
Then came the doubles tournament, which on the A side saw sophomore Max Green and junior Finn Kemper overcome a home side in Quinnipiac’s Freddie Zaretsky and Hielke Moore 6-3 in the quarterfinals. Green and Kemper eventually lost in the semifinals 6-3 to a UConn opposition of Hank Hill and Yili Zheng. The pair would eventually go on to win the doubles tournament.
The B side of the doubles tournament saw two Fordham campaigns, as Mauitzson paired with junior Jeremy Chung to win in the Round of 16 7-6(3) over Peter Anker and Zach Lieb of Wesleyan before a losing 6-4 effort to Quinnipiac in the next round. The B doubles also included a duo of junior Steven Duka and freshman Jofre Segarra that also won their quarterfinal match, beating Jack Alexander and Brian Schick of Quinnipiac 6-3. Duka and Segarra then lost their semifinal match 6-1 to a strong Wesleyan side, effectively ending the Rams’ doubles efforts for the tournament.
The Fordham men’s tennis squad will take the court next on Oct. 6-7 right on home concrete at the Hawthorn/Rooney Tennis Courts at the Rose Hill campus as they host the Fordham Four-in-the-Fall.
