Five individuals from the men’s tennis team took the flight down to Georgia to compete at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Cup this past weekend. Senior Vuk Vuksanovic qualified by winning an ITA Regional singles title at the New England Regional Championships hosted by Tufts. Doubles pair junior Javier Gonzalez and first-year Stavros Mastrogamvrakis, as well as doubles pair juniors Sacha Maes and Alex Ganchev, both qualified by reaching the ITA New England Regional doubles finals.
In both singles and doubles, the Jumbos took big opening day wins. No. 2 seed Vuksanovic coasted to a dominant 6–1, 6–1 win and Gonzalez and Mastrogamvrakis battled for an impressive 6–4, 6–4 win. Ganchev and Maes capped off the day with a huge 6–4, 7–5 upset over the No. 2 seed pairing from Emory University of Christian Liew and Ruilin Feng.
In the quarterfinals, all of the Jumbos fought valiantly, but some fell just short of the semifinals. In singles, Vuksanovic was his usual self, easily taking the first set 6–2. However, his opponent, Alex Feies of Carnegie Mellon University, stole the second set in a tiebreaker, and kept the momentum, winning the third set and subsequently advancing to the semifinals. The loss ended a very admirable fall campaign for Vuksanovic, who over the winter will prepare for a promising spring season.
Doubles pairing Gonzalez and Mastrogamvrakis, after a stellar showing, had their run in the main draw ended by Ethan Green and Kael Shah of Denison University in a 6–1, 6–1 match.
Ganchev and Maes found their performance at the ITA Cup only improving, taking down familiar NESCAC opponents Connor Griff and Antonio Jose Chavez of Hamilton College in a controlled fashion, 6–2, 6–2.
Heading into the semifinals, Ganchev and Maes found themselves against formidable opponents, Emil Grantcharov and Derek Hsieh, a strong doubles pair from the reigning Division III team national champions, the University of Chicago. For Ganchev, facing a fellow Bulgarian raised the stakes even higher.
“There was a little drama, for sure, on the court. There were some close calls and there was some heat in the match. That definitely put me in a more difficult spot. … It was a very rowdy match and it was very up and down. For me, that was a big moment, and once we won it, I felt a lot of confidence going into the finals.”
After a 6–2 win in the first set, the match headed into a contested second set, in which the Jumbos won the tiebreaker and the match, heading to the finals.
Thus, Ganchev and Maes found themselves in the finals of the ITA Cup doubles tournament, a feat only matched by senior teammates Vuksanovic and Derin Acaroglu in 2022. The pair faced the duo of Green and Shah from Denison, who had previously knocked out the Tufts pair of Gonzalez and Mastrogamvrakis.
Looking to avenge their teammates, Ganchev and Maes came out firing, taking a 5–2 lead in the first set. The set went back and forth, with Denison winning four straight games to lead 6–5, then Tufts sending the set to a tiebreaker, 6–6, with four straight points off their serve. The pair then dominated the tiebreaker in order to make the match 1–0 sets in favor of Tufts.
This momentum carried the Jumbos to a 3–0 lead in the second set. However, Denison was unfazed and rattled off three of their own games, eventually leading to a 5–5 tie in the second set. Ganchev and Maes won their service game, and had to break Denison’s service game to win the ITA Cup. With two points left before winning the match, Ganchev ripped a forehand service return down the line by the Denison net player to set up match point.
At match point, Maes hit a strong return cross-court, then a deep second shot over the net player. Denison retreated and hit a lob, allowing Maes to return the shot with an overhead. Denison’s desperate return of the overhead floated a shallow ball over the net for Ganchev to volley away, winning the duo the ITA Cup doubles’ crown, the first in Tufts men’s tennis program history.
On the last point of the match, after practicing the combination with their doubles coach and former professional doubles player Jamie Cerratini, Maes noted, “We sent the match point to … Jamie, and he … had goosebumps watching that point because it was literally [a] perfect doubles [match] in his view. … He saw it all come together in that one point.”
However, as this pair moves on from this historic run, they now turn their attention from their victory to the exciting spring season. “Yes, we achieved this great thing, but it’s just one step,” Maes said.
“Once we won the last point of the tournament, and we raised [our] hands and we realized we were national champions, it was a great feeling. But, for me personally, it lasted maybe five to 10 minutes. … After [the match], I called my family and they were celebrating, watching the cameras back home [in Bulgaria at] 2 a.m. … It was a great sensation. … Right after, I felt, again, locked in for the next thing ahead,” Ganchev said.
With team morale high after an outstanding ITA Cup showing, this fall season may be all the momentum the Jumbos need to focus on their practice over the winter before they get back onto the courts in the spring.
