WESTLAKE, Ohio – Denison men's tennis traveled to Westlake, Ohio on Friday evening as they opened the 2018 dual schedule with an 8-1 loss to ninth-ranked University of Chicago.
In doubles competition, Denison's first doubles pairing of Kevin Brown and Jamie McDonald took Chicago's Nicholas Chua and Ninan Kumar to the edge, before falling by a final of 9-7. The Maroons added two additional match points when the nation's top-ranked doubles team of Tyler Raclin and Jeremy Yuan defeated Denison's Mitchell Thai and Patrick McGuigan, 8-5, followed by Abhin Sharma and Bobby Bethke taking an 8-5 win over Brian Weisberg and Vlad Rotnov.
In singles play, DU's Brown took victory in the fourth singles with Peter Leung, 6-3, 7-6 (4-0). At fifth singles, Danish Siddiquie fell in a tiebreaker to the nation's 27th ranked player, Alejandro Rodriguez, 6-4, 4-6, 10-3.
The first singles play saw Rotnov take the second set, 7-6, from Chicago's Chua, before being retired in the next set. Thai also went to a tiebreaker in third singles after winning the first set over Yuan, the nation's sixth-ranked singles player, 7-6, but then lost in the final set, 6-4.
The Big Red will return to action Friday, Feb. 23 when they travel to Erie, Pa. to take on Allegheny College at the Westwood Racquet Club. The match is set to start at 6 p.m.
