Men’s Tennis Players Stall Out in Semifinals of MIT Invitational Event

This weekend the men’s tennis team traveled to Medford, Massachusetts for the final tournament of the fall season, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Invitational. The tournament, divided into two Flights, A and B in both singles and doubles. Each team sent the bottom of their ladders into the B division. In the singles on Friday, Flight A saw Sean Wei ’21, Zach Bessette ’19 and Jayson Fung ’20 advance through their first several games but Kevin Ma ’21 fell to Brandeis’s Adam Tzeng. Flight B’s Damian Ruparel ’22, William Turchetta ’22 and Harry Foulkes ’22 advanced to Saturday with wins, though Jesse Levitin ’19 fell to Bowdoin’s Larry Zhao.

On Saturday morning, Flight A’s number four seeded duo of Bessette and Wei won both their matches, placing them in Sunday’s semifinals. They defeated Wesleyan’s Adrain Roji and Marcus Sweeney and then Middlebury’s Stanley Morris and Nate Eazor. Fung and Foulkes also advanced to the semifinals after winning twice on Saturday, against Noah Farrell and Peter Martin from Middlebury and Evan Fortier and Larry Zhao from Bowdoin. The Mammoths also saw doubles action in Flight B, where Levitin and Ruparel advanced to semifinals after defeating Wesleyan’s Peter Anker and Andrew Finkelman.

Wei defeated Anupreeth Coramutla of Brandeis and Finkelman of Wesleyan on Saturday, securing himself a place in Sunday’s semifinals. Fung battled Nikhil Das of Brandeis and MIT’s Alex Cauneac, defeating both for his own place in the semifinals. After surviving Friday, Bessette fell to Bowdoin’s Justin Patel. Flight B’s Ruparel also won twice Saturday, beating first Evan Fortier of Bowdoin and then Tyler Ng of Brandeis. Turchetta also advanced to the semifinals after beating Noah Reich and Jackson Kogan.

Harris Foulkes won his first game but lost in his second, falling to Calvin Chung of Williams. Sunday saw four singles and three doubles play in both flights. Wei started strong in the semifinals, defeating Wesleyan’s Peter Anker, but fell to Noah Farrell of Middlebury in the finals 6-2, 6-2.

Fung had lost to Farrell in the semifinals earlier Sunday morning 6-4, 6-2. In Flight B, Ruparel and Turchetta both lost their semifinal matchup. In doubles, Bessette and Wei also made it to the finals after defeating Brandeis’ Kogan and Tzeng, though they eventually would lose to Carter and Lilienthal of Wesleyan. Fung and Foulkes fought valiantly in the semifinals in Flight A but did not advance to the final. Flight B saw Levitin and Ruparel play through to the finals, but they fall to Middlebury champions Xiao and Samets.

The Mammoths concluded their fall with a weekend full of action. After a strong season, they will now take a well-deserved break and begin again in the spring. Their first game is March 10, in Orlando Florida in a spring-break trip match.