Penn women’s, men’s tennis starts the season off strong

Penn’s tennis is making a racket.

The competition has ramped up for Penn women’s and men’s tennis. From professional debuts to deep runs at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American Championships, here’s what you’ve missed on the court.

Women’s tennis racks up titles and wins

Penn women’s tennis was coming into the season hot, with the No. 23 ranked recruiting class in the country. The expectations were high going into their first meet of the season — the Tribe Invitational hosted by the William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va., on Sept. 12-13.

Senior captain Esha Velaga brought her A-game, defeating Victoria Mann from Richmond, Michaela Stephens from Morgan State, and Ulyana Romanova from Old Dominion to claim the Green Singles Draw title. A few weeks prior, Velaga made her professional debut at the Women’s Tennis Association 125 Ennoble Care Philly Open, where she fell to No. 3 tournament seed Ekaterina Ovcharenko, 6-2, 6-4 in the qualifying singles draw.

Freshman Athina Schlepphorst claimed her first collegiate doubles and singles titles at the meet as well. Schlepphorst and Velaga went undefeated as a pair to win the Colonial Doubles Draw, defeating William & Mary pair Mira Kernagis and Alexia Gonzalez-Galino 6-1, and Richmond pair Sofia Barbulescu and Lucy Webber 7-5. In the Black Singles Draw, Schlepphorst bageled both of her opponents in straight sets, co-winning with sophomore Joleen Saw, who also claimed singles victories in the draw.

The rest of the team also earned multiple wins for Penn, including two singles wins each for junior Lara Stojanovski and senior Sasha Motlagh, and wins for sophomore Varsha Vedula, senior Liza Tkachenko, and freshman Emma Tomova in both singles and doubles. 

Velaga continued to represent the Red and Blue as the No. 20 seed in the women’s singles pre-qualifying draw at the ITA All-American Championships, one of the most prestigious majors in collegiate tennis. 

She faced Pietra Rivoli from the University of South Carolina for the round of 256, where she won 6-4, 6-3. Velaga continued to the round of 128, playing and defeating Mia Yamakita from Vanderbilt in a thrilling three-setter. Despite dropping the opening set 3-6, Velaga made a comeback, taking the second set 6-4 and ultimately winning the match after closely taking the third set 7-5 to advance to the next round. 

There, she faced Marta Mariia Makarova from the University of Central Florida, where Velaga played in another three-setter that unfortunately ended in a loss of 3-6, 6-1, 3-6. While her run in the pre-qualifying draw ended there, she was selected to compete as an alternate in the qualifying draw, facing No. 10 Jantje Tilbuerger from the University of Central Florida. 

Velaga fought hard, narrowly losing the first set 5-7. She would take the second set 6-3, but unfortunately lost the deciding set 2-6, concluding her run at the tournament.

“I know there are always very strong players at All-Americans, but I was playing well and ready to leave it all out there, given that it is my last year at Penn. Even though I came up short, I played well and had tight matches with really good players, so I am excited to see how the rest of the season goes!” Velaga wrote.

Penn hosted West Virginia University and Drexel for the Penn Invitational from Sept. 25-27, where the Quakers added even more wins to their roster. 

Tkachenko put on an amazing performance throughout the tournament, going entirely undefeated in singles and doubles across eight matches against her opponents from Drexel and West Virginia. Tomova, Stojanovski, and Saw also put their best foot forward, often taking down their opponents in straight sets. 

The tournament also marked freshman players Cookie Jarvis-Tredgett and Peien Deng’s first collegiate tennis wins. 

Jarvis-Tredgett battled back from being one set down to take the second set and narrowly win the third set super tiebreak, defeating Drexel player Anastasia Kavounov 2-6, 6-3, 1-0 (8) on day one. Deng picked up her first doubles win with Tkachenko, defeating Drexel pair Bia Ibrahim and Olivia Chowgule 6-1. She also won her first singles match on the third day, saving a match point and winning three consecutive points in the third set super tiebreak to emerge victorious over Drexel’s Kavounov 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (9).

Penn closed the tournament on day three in flawless fashion, winning all three doubles matches and all six singles matches against doubles, a fitting end to a strong start of the season. The Quakers will return to competition for the ITA Northeast Regional in Princeton, N.J., from Oct. 15-20. 

Penn men’s tennis sees strong showings at Orange and Blue Invitational, ITA All-American Championships

Even after losing 2026 Wharton graduate Manfredi Graziani — the winningest player in program history and one half of the greatest doubles pairing in program history — Penn men’s tennis was determined to start their season strong at the Orange and Blue Invitational in Charlottesville, Va.

Sophomores Nischal Spurling and Adam Bain picked up their first wins of the season on the first day of competition, each taking down their opponents in straight sets. Spurling doubled back on the second day of competition, earning his first doubles victory of the season alongside senior Parashar Bharadwaj with a 7-6(2) tiebreak victory over Virginia’s Dylan Dietrich and Ty Switzer.

The sophomores stayed strong through the final day of competition, with both Quakers adding another singles win to their records, while Bain notched his first doubles victory of the season next to freshman Sebastian Chodura with a 7-6(1) tiebreak victory over Old Dominion’s Zech Hamrouni and J.K. Olivier de Sardan. 

With some early season wins under their belt, the Red and Blue turned their attention to one of the biggest competitions of the year: the ITA All-American Championships. A number of collegiate tennis players are selected to compete in the tournament based on their institutional or individual ranking, earning a bid to either the pre-qualifying, qualifying, or main rounds based on their rank.

Penn sent six players to the singles tournament, with junior Zaid Al Mashni advancing immediately to the qualifying rounds based on his ITA Singles ranking from the 2025-26 season. Al Mashni peaked at No. 66 in the ITA singles charts while competing for Wichita State last year. 

Of the five Quakers who competed in the prequalifying rounds, only junior Shaurya Bharadwaj advanced to the qualifying competition. Although Bharadwaj upset No. 69 Lasse Poertner of Pepperdine with back-to-back 7-6 victories in his opening game, he ultimately failed to advance to the main round of 64 after falling to UCLA’s Andy Nguyen. 

But it wasn’t over for Bharadwaj yet. The Charlotte, N.C., native would put up a fierce fight during the doubles competition alongside sophomore Vojtech Vales. 

Vales and Bharadwaj competed at the second position for the Quakers in the pre-qualifying draw, with senior Aaron Sandler and Al Mashni occupying the first slot. Both pairings won their day one pre-qualifying matches against Troy and NC State, respectively. 

Bharadwaj and Vales kept up the momentum going into the second day of competition, posting a win against Santa Clara’s Luca Bluett and Valentin Faure, but Sandler and Al Mashni weren’t as lucky, falling to TCU’s Maximus Dussault and Matthieu Chambonniere.  

Both of the Red and Blue squads were facing uphill battles going into the qualifying round of 64. While Bharadwaj and Vales managed to pull off a tiebreak upset (6-7, 6-2, 13-11) over No. 58 Kai Milburn and Igor Kudriashov of Ole Miss, Sandler and Al Mashni’s run was stopped by No. 38 Viktor Markov and Noa Vukadin of Clemson.  

Now boasting a No. 88 ITA ranking, Bharadwaj and Vales advanced to the main draw round of 32 after another ranked victory over No. 86 Niksa Arsic and Thiago Guglieri of Texas Tech. Unfortunately, the Quakers couldn’t overcome No. 22 Moritz Kudernatsch and Pietro Pampanin of Ole Miss, falling to the Rebels 7-6, 7-5. 

Penn was still in it for the consolation bracket, even if the odds were stacked against them. Bharadwaj and Vales’ next opponent would be their toughest yet — No. 7 Romain Gales and Bruno Kuzuhara of Clemson. Gales and Kuzuhara were projected to make a deep run in the main draw, but fell to a Notre Dame duo in extra sets in the opening round.

Bharadwaj and Vales took it down to the wire, falling to the Tigers 3-6 in the first set before bouncing back for a reverse sweep with 7-6 and 10-7 victories in the following sets. A day seven victory over Michigan State’s Danial Rakhmatullayev and Taym Alazmeh sent the Quakers to the consolation semifinals, where they would face No. 49 duo Max Exsted and Nathan Trouve of USC.

Exsted and Trouve took the first set, beating the Quakers 6-2, but Penn bounced back with a narrow 6-4 victory in the second. With everything on the line in the final set, the Quakers gave it all they had but came up just shy, falling to the Trojans 8-10. 

While most of the squad enjoyed a brief hiatus from competition before the ITA Northeast Regionals, Chodura competed at the St. Joseph’s Invitational over fall break, earning his first collegiate singles victory over Luke Tollenaar of Delaware in straight sets. The Quakers will host the ITA Northeast Regionals at the Hamlin/Hecht Tennis Centers from Oct. 15-20.