This past weekend, the Dartmouth men’s tennis team played two matches on the road. The Big Green lost 4-0 to the University of Pennsylvania on April 4, and fell 7-0 to Princeton University the next day.
In Saturday’s match against the Quakers — who are currently ranked second in the highly competitive Ivy League — Yujiro Onuma ’27 and Waleed Qadir ’26 took the court for first doubles. After a close match, UPenn’s Sanjeev Chundu and Aaron Sandler got the best of them, eventually winning 6-4.
Second doubles, featuring Miles Groom ’26 and Henry Ren ’26, fell to the same fate.
At third doubles, Denny Bao ’28 and Alex Knox-Jones ’25 did not finish. However, they were neck and neck as they walked off the court. With the scorecard at 6-5 in Penn’s favor when play stopped, Bao and Knox-Jones maintained their “undefeated” record as a pair.
“Alex and I started playing together at the start of spring break, and I feel like we’ve been playing really well together,” Bao said. “We’re still undefeated in our last two matches against Penn and Princeton, which were both unfinished unfortunately.”
Prior to playing third doubles at Dartmouth, Bao was a two-time Canadian National Champion at the U16 level. Bao has enjoyed the shift from a solely individual focus to a more team-centered experience, especially when on the court with Knox-Jones.
“One of our first big matches that I experienced was versus Liberty,” Bao said. “Their team was so loud, but we got a lot of friends to come out and support. The experience really showed me what the entire atmosphere of college tennis was.”
Despite close singles matches from Carlos Guerrero Alvarez ’25, Miles Groom ’26 and Alex Knox-Jones ’25, none reached a third set against UPenn.
The matchups against Princeton were more competitive, with three singles matches ending in tie breakers.
“We were right there,” head coach Justin DeSanto said. “The guys competed super hard. Princeton was just a little tougher in the end.”
At number one singles, Alvarez dropped the first set to Princeton's Fnu Nidunjianzan, 4-6. However, in the second set he managed to flip the score, 6-4, and take the win. Despite his efforts, Alvarez would fall 6-10 in the third set tiebreaker.
In a similar vein, holding down the sixth spot on the ladder, Onuma won his first set 6-2. However, he came up just short in the second set – losing 6-7 – before dropping the tiebreaker 10-5.
At third singles, Ren lost the first set 6-2, but came back in the second set where he snagged a 7-5 win. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to bring that momentum into the tiebreaker, eventually falling 10-3.
The third doubles team, Bao and Knox-Jones, was up 5-3 in their matchup. Their game was unfinished once again when both first and second doubles fell 6-3 and 6-1, respectively, giving the Tigers the doubles points.
Despite not grabbing a win this weekend, the team has had major bright spots in the year thus far. On March 30, they hosted Harvard University for the Ivy Opener at the Boss Tennis Center in Hanover. Despite falling to Harvard 3-4, the result was notable — at the time of the match, the Crimson was ranked 14th nationally.
“That was a big accomplishment for us to have the match right on our racket at 3-4,” DeSantos said. “This team, when I took over 18-19 months ago, was 154th in the country. We’ve been ranked as high as 57th this season, now we’ve fallen a bit to 79th, so we’ve almost cut our ranking in half.”
The last time the Big Green were nationally ranked was at 75th on March 25. They were bumped out of the national rankings on April 1 after the loss against Harvard.
According to DeSantos, the team has been focused this season on addressing problems head-on, achieving a more physical presence and fighting longer for each point.
“We have pretty much the same team as last year; we only lost one senior,” Groom said. “I think that [our ranking] shows that the team did make some really big strides from the year before, despite the same guys playing.”
The team is also emphasizing consistency, ensuring the players are mentally tough when facing moments of intensity and thinking about executing in the moment instead of what lies ahead.
“Lately, even if people are having a bad day, we’re all just fighting and finding ways to problem solve and to play a really good match,” Alvarez said. “I think that’s the biggest area we’ve grown throughout the season.”
The team continues conference play feeling “optimistic”, according to Groom. They are preparing to play several big matches against high-level contenders such as Columbia — ranked 10th in the nation — and Cornell, ranked 39th.
“We lost a close 3-4 match to Yale in the conference tournament earlier this season in February,” Groom said. “Having the opportunity to get revenge on them is something that we are really looking forward to.”
The rematch against the Bulldogs will occur at the Boss Tennis Center courts this Friday, April 11, at 2:00 p.m.
