Vanderbilt Men’s Tennis opened the spring season with a statement on Jan. 16, sweeping both Alabama A&M and Tennessee Tech in Music City.
Alabama A&M
Sophomore phenom, Danil Panarin, and first-year, Pablo Martinez Gomez, began the Commodores’ day of domination. The doubles pair gained a 6-2 win over Alabama A&M’s Kai Cowcher and Yin Chih Lan. Dylan Charlap and Callum Markowitz doubled down on this commanding victory, besting Freddie Lawrence and Goran Krivokapic in a 6-2 rout.
In singles play against Alabama A&M, Henry Ruger and Tighe Brunetti picked up their first collegiate dual match victories following 6-4, 6-2 and 6-0, 6-0 stompings of Cowcher and Chih Lan, respectively. Charlap maintained the Commodores’ momentum with a convincing 6-1, 6-2 victory over Lawrence, while Giuseppe Cerasuolo capped off the first dual match of the day with an equally dominant 6-1, 6-2 win against Krivokapic.
Tennessee Tech
Head coach Scott Brown’s squad was equally — if not more — dominant against Tennessee Tech. In doubles play, Michael Ross and Ruger dusted Lucas Bitzer and Davids Spaks en route to a 6-0 win. Shortly afterward, Charlap and Markowitz handily defeated Oliver Dao and Darek Kuczynski, 6-2. Panarin and Martinez Gomez rounded out the day’s doubles play with a shortened 4-3 victory over Alex Alvarez and Marilo Burckhardt.
Singles play saw more of the same dominant performances from the ‘Dores. Panarin made quick work of Alvarez in a 6-0, 6-1 two-set match and Ross defeated Burckhardt in a 6-2, 6-3 contest. Martinez Gomez — undefeated in his collegiate career thus far — beat Oliver Dao 6-2, 6-3. Ruger, Markowitz and Brunetti ended the Commodores’ undefeated day at home with successive wins over Bitzer, Spaks and Kuczynski.
Michigan State
On Jan. 19, Vanderbilt Men’s Tennis went on the road for the first time this spring, traveling to East Lansing to play No. 23 Michigan State. Vanderbilt took care of business quickly in doubles play to take the early lead. Hugo Coquelin and Ruger dealt with Michigan State’s No. 66 duo Taym Alazmeh and Danial Rakhmatullayev rather quickly in a 6-1 outing. Nathan Cox and Ross followed suit, winning 6-3 against Ozan Baris and Vuk Radjenovic. Gomez and Panarin didn’t need to finish their match but still held a 4-2 lead over No. 107 duo Matthew Forbes and Max Sheldon by the time Vanderbilt had won the doubles point.
Michigan State responded well to Vanderbilt’s dominant play by winning the next five contests and the match. Nothing went right for the Commodores in singles play. First, Coquelin retired in the middle of his first set while down 4-3 against No. 40 Forbes. Vanderbilt then dropped three straight singles pairings — Gomez beat Alazmeh 6-0, 7-6 (5), Rakhmatullayev beat Ruger 6-3, 7-5 and No. 27 Aristotelis Thanos beat Panarin 7-6 (5), 6-1. With the match already decided, there was still hope that No. 100 Cox, Vanderbilt’s only ranked player, might still be able to beat No. 8 Baris and improve his ranking. Cox came up short in the close match, but Baris prevailed 6-2, 4-6, 6-1. Vanderbilt did manage a second point, though, as Ross won the last match of the day against Radjenovic 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3.
Vanderbilt Men’s Tennis will return to action on Jan. 25 at the always electric ITA Kickoff Weekend in Durham, North Carolina. The Commodores will start play by facing off against Cornell (0-1).