Penn men’s tennis (7-3, 0-0 Ivy) has just begun the latter-half of their season — and the sense of something incredible hangs in the air.
Since the second day of the season back in early September, Penn has demonstrated its potential for a truly historic run. When the Quakers visited Virginia for the Orange and Blue Classic, senior captain Manfredi Graziani topped Cavalier’s Dylan Dietrich, currently ranked No. 2 in ITA singles rankings, in three straight sets.
Just two months later, sophomore Shaurya Bharadwaj make a deep run in the Ivy Conference Masters Championship before falling in the finals to Columbia’s then No. 1 ranked Michael Zheng.
Graziani and junior Aaron Sandler dominated in their doubles matches. The pair won the ITA All-American Consolation Bracket Championship, becoming the first Penn doubles team to win the tournament. At the NCAA Doubles Championship, the Quaker duo swept then No. 4 ranked TCU’s Cosme Rolland De Ravel and Albert Pedrico Kravtsov and mounted a thrilling comeback win against now No. 2 Wake Forest’s Dhakshineswar Suresh and Andrew Delgado.
Though the pair eventually fell to current No. 1 Ohio State’s doubles, Graziani and Sandler reached the semi-finals of the tournament for the first time in program history.
Unlike the fall, the spring tournament is an overall team-based competition, meaning Penn will need to win matches at all levels with several different players.
Throughout the spring, the Red and Blue faced several tough opponents, starting with a clean sweep of Navy, and a visit to No.29 Arkansas. This past weekend, the Quakers got a glimpse at future Ivy play as they went on the road to compete at the ECAC Indoor Championships. Spread over three days, annual competition hosts all eight members of the Ivy League for a single elimination tournament.
Opening the first round with an upset over No. 3 Harvard, the Quakers scraped back from a poor doubles showing to take all but one singles match, winning 4-3. But the team fell to No. 2 Princeton and lost third place to Cornell.
On Feb. 25, the Quakers reconvened in New Haven to return to regular season competition against Yale. While Penn quickly took care of business in the doubles competition, taking two quick matches 6-4 and 6-1, it was in singles play that Penn’s roster depth showed its prowess. With Graziani and Bharadwaj caught in tough matchups, senior captain Matthew Rutter, sophomore Justin Chung, and freshman Vojtech Vales each defeated a Bulldog in straight sets, securing the 4-1 team victory for the Quakers.
The team looks to continue its success to qualify for the NCAA tournament in May, a feat accomplished only once in Penn’s history when senior Manfredi Graziani’s older brother, 2023 College graduate Edoardo Graziani, helped the team qualify in 2022.
