Indiana men’s tennis continued its fall individual season Thursday to Sunday at the Big Ten Individual Championships at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin. The tournament featured six Hoosiers in singles matches and three Hoosier teams in doubles matches. Junior Ben Pomeranets and redshirt junior Facundo Yunis advanced the furthest in singles play, both reaching the later rounds before being eliminated.
Pomeranets opened the tournament with a round of 32 victory over Purdue junior Stefan Simeunovic, rallying for a 2-6, 7-6(4), 10-3 victory.
Yunis, who was the No. 2 seed in the tournament, made his way through the round of 32 with a dominant win over Northwestern sophomore Dylan Charlap 6-1, 6-1.
The pair of Hoosiers then moved to the round of 16, with both Yunis and Pomeranets claiming three-set victories in the round. Yunis defeated Purdue sophomore Maj Premzl 4-6, 6-1, 11-9, while Pomeranets claimed a win over No. 5 seeded Nebraska junior Henry Lamchinniah 6-1, 4-6, 10-7.
Pomeranets finally met his match in Michigan State senior David Saye in the quarterfinals. After winning the first set of the three-set dual, Pomeranets ultimately fell to Saye with finals scores of 4-6, 6-3, 10-7. Yunis, however, defeated Wisconsin sophomore Ferdinand Kloesters in just two sets, 6-3, 6-2.
Yunis then advanced to the semifinals where he faced No. 3 seeded Wisconsin senior Michael Minasyan. Both Yunis and Minasyan were named to the Big Ten men’s tennis Players to Watch List in 2025.
The match began with Yunis winning the first set 6-4. However, Yunis lost in the second set 1-6, with Minasyan forcing a tie-break set. With the momentum shifted, the final tie-break set did not go Yunis’ way, and he fell to Minasyan 4-10 in the semifinal round.
Along with Pomeranets and Yunis, the Hoosiers fielded senior Deacon Thomas, redshirt freshman Aidan Atwood, sophomore Karan Raghavendra and senior Sam Scherer in the singles tournament.
Thomas, Atwood, Raghavendra and Scherer each battled their way out of the round of 64. However, in the round of 32, all fell to high-seeded contenders.
Raghavendra found himself in the round of 32 after a win over Nebraska’s senior Henry Bilicic 6-3, 6-4. However, in the round of 32, Raghavendra faced No. 1 seed Michigan senior Bjorn Swenson and fell in a 2-6, 0-6 loss.
After moving out of the round of 64 with a win over Purdue senior Mujtaba Ali-Khan, Scherer faced tough competition in the round of 32. Scherer ultimately lost a difficult matchup with the No. 4 seed Wisconsin sophomore Patrik Meszaros 4-6, 4-6.
Thomas moved to the round of 32 after defeating Michigan freshman Pierce Shaya, 6-2, 5-7, 10-8. However, Thomas’ round of 32 match against Kloesters, who was eventually defeated by Yunis, did not go his way with a 3-6, 2-6 loss.
In doubles play, Indiana featured three pairings, led by Yunis and senior Sam Landau. Yunis and Landau were in the No. 1 seed position out of the round of 32.
Yunis and Landau quickly moved through their round of 16 match against Wisconsin junior Collin Beduhn and sophomore Sachiv Kumar in a 6-2 win.
In the quarterfinals round, Yunis and Landau faced Nebraska’s Bilicic and sophomore Colson Wells. The pair moved to the semifinals round with a 6-3 victory.
The Hoosiers’ doubles run ended in the semifinals, however, with a 4-6 loss to Michigan State sophomore Mitchell Sheldon and Saye, who won the doubles competition.
Indiana will now turn its focus to the ITA Sectionals Nov. 5-8 in Athens, Georgia. The ITA Sectionals presents one of the team’s final opportunities to qualify more players for the NCAA Singles Championships, held Nov. 18-23 in Orlando, Florida.
