The men’s tennis team kicked off their season with the annual Brown Fall Invite in Providence. The Bears played a number of both doubles and singles matches over the weekend against Merrimack College, Quinnipiac University and Yale.
“I’m proud of how the team came together this weekend,” Head Coach Alex Kasarov wrote in a statement to The Herald. “There were some strong performances, and even in areas where we can improve, the effort and energy were there.”
The Bears began the invite early Saturday morning with two doubles matches against the Merrimack Warriors.
The first of the two matches looked promising. James Lian ’27 and Tobias Luo ’28 started the Bears off with a narrow 6-4 victory over Merrimack’s Morgan Donovan and Kabir Chhabria. By controlling the pace of the game, minimizing unforced errors and capitalizing on Merrimack faults, the underclassmen duo secured an early Bruno victory.
The following doubles match between George Bader ’25 and Brian Chong ’25 took on Merrimack’s Charles Robertson and Valentin Riveros was less impressive. The Merrimack duo demonstrated impressive power and chemistry, forcing Bruno errors and swiftly handing the senior duo a 6-1 loss to conclude doubles play that morning.
The Bears and Warriors then played four singles matches. Lian got the Bears off to a fantastic start in singles play, defeating Merrimack’s Mateusz Gradzki 7-6(8), 6-2, and 11-9.
On the other court, Luo dominated, crushing Morgan Donovan in two quick sets 6-0 and 6-1, securing his first collegiate singles victory in the process. While Luo impressed, he was not complacent. “I am happy I got my first collegiate win, but I feel like I could have performed better,” he wrote in an email to The Herald. “My game was solid, but I just need to work on a few things.”
Just as the Bears seemed to be dominating the singles matches, the Warriors flipped the script, winning the other two matches with short sets. Kabir Chhabria defeated Chong 6-2 and 6-3, while on the other court, Charles Robertson defeated Bader 6-1 and 6-2. The Warriors’ last-minute effort left things all tied up between Brown and Merrimack, as the teams finished 2-2 in singles and 1-1 in doubles after play against Merrimack.
After a brief lunch break, matches resumed for Bruno on Saturday afternoon at around 2 p.m., when the Bears pivoted their focus to the Quinnipiac Bobcats.
Play between the Bears and Bobcats began with two doubles matches. Quinnipiac’s Finn Burridge and Carlos Braun-Simo took on Lian and Luo, the young duo coming off an impressive win. But this time, the underclassmen were outmatched. Burridge and Braun-Simo were more disciplined, capitalizing on the Bears’ mistakes and defeating Bruno 6-0.
The latter doubles match was between Quinnipiac’s Yasha Laskin and Csanad Nyaradi and Brown’s senior duo, Bader and Chong. To the Bears’ dismay, the Quinnipiac squad swept Bruno in doubles play, scarcely winning 7-5. “Quinnipiac was very solid and their doubles were strong,” Luo wrote. “They were more aggressive than us and that really showed.”
After the two doubles matches versus Quinnipiac, the Bears and Bobcats brawled in singles. Lian spearheaded the Bears’ effort in singles, taking on Quinnipiac’s Finn Burridge. Lian struggled with Burridge’s serve during the first set, dropping it 6-2. Nevertheless, Lian adjusted and finished strong, winning the last two sets 6-1 and 10-3.
“(Burridge) had a big serve and a big forehand, so he was tough to break down initially. He also competed hard, which I respect out of any of my opponents,” Lian wrote.
Unfortunately for Bruno, Lian was the only winner in singles versus Quinnipiac, as the Bobcats’ Braun-Simo defeated Luo in two sets 6-3 and 7-5. Braun-Simo “was very solid,” Luo wrote. “He outplayed me and found my weaker spot and honed in on that. It was a tight match, but a few points here and there cost me.”
On the other court, Brown’s Chong and Bader both lost singles matches to Quinnipiac, closing out play on Saturday. After all matches against Quinnipiac, the Bears finished 1-3 in singles and 0-2 in doubles.
On Sunday morning, the Bears launched play against the Yale Bulldogs, starting off with two doubles matches. Yale’s Dylan Tsoi and Walker Oberg gave the Bears underclassmen duo a tough match, closely defeating Lian and Luo 6-4. On the other court, the Bulldogs maintained dominance, defeating Brown’s Bader and Chong 6-1.
In singles play, Lian secured the lone Brunonian victory, defeating Tsoi 6-1 and 10-5 in the first and third sets. “Given all three of my singles matches went the distance, there were definitely a lot of ups and downs, but I feel that I performed well on big points when it mattered the most,” wrote Lian.
Outside of Lian’s victory, the Bulldogs were nothing short of dominant, winning the other three singles matches against Brown’s Luo, Bader and Chong.
The critical singles losses to the Bulldogs left the Bears with a 1-3 singles record and 0-2 doubles record against Yale — the exact same as their record against Quinnipiac the day prior.
Across the weekend, the Bears finished with a singles record of 4-8 and a doubles record of 1-5.
The squad will return to action on Friday, Sept. 27th at the three-day-long Yale Fall Invite. Matches will be held at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center in New Haven, Connecticut.
“Our main goals are to keep improving as a team and ensure we’re playing our best tennis by the end of the season,” Kasarov wrote. “We’re focused on consistency and staying competitive in every match. We’ll take it one step at a time.”
Cooper Herman is a senior staff writer covering sports and arts & culture. He is a freshman from Alexandria, Virginia studying Economics and International and Public Affairs.
