By Dylan Balsamo

This past weekend, the fall season came to a close for the Rams’ men’s tennis squad in honorable fashion, reaching at least the semifinals in every department of the effort. The scene was a familiar one: the Hawthorn Rooney courts on campus in the Bronx with Wagner, St. Francis Brooklyn and Hofstra.

Leading the way for Fordham was junior Fabian Hansch Mauritzson and sophomore Max Green, who both played in the A singles pool and reached the finals. Mauritzson’s road to the finals included defeating Anatolly Lashkul of Wagner 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinals and Marcus Smith of Hofstra 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals. Green took down Hofstra’s Jan Leithner 6-4, 3-6, 10-8 and Wagner’s Dylan Walters 3-6, 6-3, 10-6 on his way to the top. The two Fordham Rams will play their match against each other for the A singles title at a later time.

Maroon success was all across the board, including B singles, where sophomore Lutwin de Macar beat Guillermo Artiz of St. Francis Brooklyn 6-3, 7-6 in the quarterfinals and Shawn Jackson of Hofstra 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinals, reaching the finals, where he eventually lost to Eric Poland of Wagner 7-5, 1-6, 10-7.

The C singles saw another two Rams reach the semifinals. The first was freshman Jofre Segarra, who beat Giacomo Pezzoli of Hofstra 6-3, 2-6, 10-5 in the quarterfinals and lost to Siddarth Anand 6-1, 6-3 in his next match. The other was junior Jeremy Chung, who defeated fellow junior Ram Finn Kemper 7-6, 6-6 (retired) to make it to the semifinals before losing to Dale Sandy of Wagner in what proved to be the most exciting match of the weekend: 6-2, 3-6, 12-10.

This success on the home court allows the Rams to end the fall season on a high note, and they are riding high as they enter break.

“I am very pleased with the team’s effort and results this fall,” said Mauritzson. “We have all been working hard towards the same goal during the entire semester and that hard work paid off this weekend. Several of us had great success this weekend and we cannot wait for the spring to start.”
The Rams return to play after the turn of the new year: Saturday, Jan. 26 in Harrison, New York in a conference match against Hofstra.