Over three-quarters of the way through the 2021-22 season for Penn men’s tennis, the Quakers have accumulated an overall win percentage of 77.8%, a perfect 8-0 home record, and the potential to secure the team's first Ivy League title since 2007.
The team, which has won five straight competitions and is ranked No. 46 in the nation, looks to be catching fire at the right time, as it will close out its season with six Ivy League matchups over the course of the next three weeks. Penn won its first conference contest against No. 34 Princeton this past Saturday, sweeping the Tigers 7-0.
In the No. 1 singles slot against Princeton, junior Edoardo Graziani won in straight sets against Ryan Seggerman, and in the No. 1 doubles slot, Graziani and junior Kevin Zhu took down Seggerman and Justin Barki 6-1. These results follow a consistent trend for Graziani, who, during 2022, has gone 11-4 in singles matches, and in doubles, has gone 9-3 with three different teammates.
Zhu has also been a stalwart for the men's tennis team, going 8-4 in his 12 singles matches so far this year. Prior to this season, Zhu had a career 33-26 record in singles matches, so this year has so far been a steady improvement for the Pearland, Texas native.
Other impressive singles performances for Penn include juniors Aditya Gupta (11-2) and Harsh Parikh (13-3), as well as freshman Baylor Sai (8-4).
Similar to Zhu, these last few months have been standout ones for Parikh, who came into the 2021-22 season with a combined career 11-8 singles record. Gupta's results, on the other hand, come as no surprise, as he held a career 21-6 singles record heading into the season and only looks to be adding onto the success.
In doubles, the one pair with a .500 record or above has been Graziani and Jason Hildebrandt, who have notched a 7-3 record over the course of the season.
The Quakers will next be in action at the Hamlin Tennis Center on Saturday and Sunday as they face off against Brown and Yale, respectively. The following week, they'll compete against Dartmouth and Harvard, with the latter posing an exciting challenge for the Quakers, as two from the Crimson’s squad received Top 25 nods from the ITA.
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