Box Score SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A busy weekend of tennis saw
Jex Frankel '27 of the Wesleyan men's tennis team win the 'C' flight of singles play at the Skidmore Invitational, highlighting the weekend for the Cardinals.
Frankel opened with a 3-6, 6-1, 10-3 win over Fletcher King before toppling the two-seed Takehiro Shuda of Tufts 6-4, 6-4, in the quarterfinals. Frankel continued to roll, earning another straight set win, this time over Thehan Wijemanne of Middlebury 6-3, 6-1 to earn a spot in the finals. Competing against the top-seed Milan Donela of Denison, Frankel again was victorious in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4.
In doubles action,
JT Bilski '26 and
Ben Mitchell '24 won a pair of matches to reach the semifinal round. The top doubles pairing for Wesleyan defeated Adel Aissaoui and Kyle Lundberg of Skidmore 8-3 in the opening round before defeating the two-seed Julian Wu and Joe Mairs of Middlebury 8-5. Their run came to an end in the semifinal, with an 8-4 defeat Shah/Green from Denison.
In the 'B' doubles flight, Frankel and
Brian Lee '25 combined for an 8-7 (3) win over Jones/Namday of Denison before bowing out with an 8-2 loss to Gutierrez/Gonzalez from Tufts.
Bilski won a couple of matches in the 'A' singles flight, starting with a comprehensive 6-3, 6-2 win over Anirudh Reddy of CMS in the opening round. He followed with a tight 7-5, 7-6 (10-5) decision over Neel Epstein to advance to the semifinal round. Facing the two-seed Kael Shah of Denison, Bilski gave it all he had, but came just short in a 6-3, 0-6, 7-5 loss in a third set tiebreak.
Also in the 'A' singles action,
Brett Keeling '27 took top-seed Derin Acaroglu of Tufts to a tiebreak in the opening round, losing 1-6, 6-3, 10-2 but the freshman rebounded, rattling off back-to-back wins to win the back draw. He won both matches via tiebreaker, first defeating Hugh Hentschel of Middlebury 4-6, 6-3, 10-3 before dumping out Shrish Chaudhary of MIT 6-1, 2-6, 10-7.
The 'B' singles flight saw
Harry Collomb '26 win 6-4, 6-4 in the opening round of the main draw against Nika Mori of Skidmore before falling in the quarterfinals. The back draw of the 'B' flight featured three Cardinals, with Mitchell scoring a win.
Coupled with Frankel's win in the 'C' singles flight,
Tai MacDonald '26 and
Max Lustgarten '25 both won matches in the back draw. MacDonald beat Aissaoui of Skidmore 6-4, 6-4 while Lustgarten toppled Lundberg 3-6, 6-2, 10-3.
The last fall competition for the Cardinals is the Wesleyan Invitational slated for next weekend with play set to begin on Saturday.
