Indiana men’s tennis struggled in its last tournament of the fall season at the Big Ten Individual Championships in Madison, Wisconsin Nov. 2-5.
The Hoosiers sent eight players to the tournament: seniors Nishanth Basavareddy, Michael Andre, Jagger Saylor and Ilya Tiraspolsky accompanied by sophomores Luc Boulier, Ekansh Kumar, Andrew Meier and Deacon Thomas.
To begin the singles portion of the tournament, Meier lost to Northwestern’s Nick Herdoiza (1-6, 2-6) and Basavareddy to Michigan State’s Josh Portnoy (4-6, 1-6). Kumar started well against Ohio State’s Reece Yakubov, but fell in a third set tiebreaker (6-0, 3-6, 7-10). Boulier also went to a third set tiebreaker but could not pick up the win as he lost to Wisconsin’s Oliver Olsson (7-5, 3-6, 6-10).
The four other Hoosiers did make it to the second round as Thomas, Tiraspolsky and Andre received first round byes. Saylor picked up Indiana’s only on-court victory behind a dominant third set tiebreaker against Penn State’s Harrison Janes (6-3, 4-6, 10-3).
In the second round, Andre lost in straight sets to the Nebraska’s Nikolay Sysoev (4-6, 3-6), Thomas to the Michigan’s Alex Cairo (4-6, 3-6) and Saylor to Nebraska’s Calvin Mueller (3-6, 2-6). Tiraspolsky played an exciting three-set match with Ohio State’s Preston Stearns but ultimately lost the match (4-6, 7-6, 8-10).
The doubles portion of the tournament was in a one set format. The sophomore team of Kumar and Boulier lost to a mixed school team consisting of Nebraska’s Rudolf Christiansen and Michigan’s Mert Oral (3-6). The two other Indiana sophomores, Meier and Thomas, were also ousted by Penn State’s Harrison Janes and Jack Martuccio (5-7).
The remaining two Indiana teams received first round byes. Tiraspolsky and Andre lost in the second round to Northwestern’s Jackson Caldwell and Saiprakash Goli (4-6), while Basavareddy and Saylor advanced to the third round in a back-and-forth tiebreaker (7-6). However, they were eliminated in the next round by Michigan’s Nino Ehrenschneider and Patorn Hanchaikul (3-6).
In total, IU won just two on-court matches across the whole tournament. Sophomore Sam Landau, whose magical run at the ITA All-American Championships was the highlight of the fall season, did not play in the tournament. After the graduation of Patrick Fletchall and transfer of Luka Vukovic, Indiana’s previous first and third starters, Indiana is looking to fill the void in the lineup ahead of the spring season. The schedule for the regular season has yet to be announced.
