SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame men’s tennis team wrapped up the fall season with their second home invitational, the Fighting Irish Mini Duals. The tournament saw players from Notre Dame, Princeton, Louisville, Illinois, DePaul, Drake and Holy Cross play in pairs for singles and doubles play.
Senior Jean-Marc Malkowski had a very strong showing as he went undefeated in singles and finished with an overall 6-1 record. He partnered with sophomore Evan Lee to go 3-1 in doubles while he Malkowski went 3-0 in singles matches highlighted by a big comeback against Oliver Okonkwo of Illinois. Malkowski found himself down 7-6, 4-1 before storming back to take five straight games and the second set. He kept the momentum going to claim the third set tiebreak 10-7 and secure the win. Lee went 2-2 in singles with wins against DePaul and Louisville.
Freshman duo Kyran Magimay and Jayanth Devaiah won their first three rounds together by a 3-0 margin each time, winning the doubles set and both singles matches. They beat teams from Louisville, DePaul and a combo Illinois/Holy Cross team to start the weekend 9-0. On the final day, they beat another DePaul team in doubles before finding themselves on the wrong end of the score at the hands of a different Louisville team, each ending the weekend with a 7-1 record.
Junior Jamie Corsillo also went undefeated in singles on the weekend with a 3-0 record. He and partner Nil Giraldez would come back from dropping the doubles to defeat Louisville 2-1 in the opening round. In the second round, Corsillo would mount his own comeback from 6-4, 3-0 down to come back and defeat Ardila of Princeton. Unfortunately, Giraldez would have to retire his match due to injury and end his weekend.
Sophomore Noah Becker went 3-1 in singles this weekend including a pair of 3-set wins against Drake and DePaul both on Saturday. He partnered with junior Brian Bilsey to go 2-2 in doubles with wins over Drake and DePaul while picking up a couple singles wins of his own against those same teams.
Freshman Chase Thompson and junior Yu Zhang opened their tournament with a 3-0 win over DePaul. Thompson had a grueling match, which he ultimately won 15-13 in the third set tiebreak, saving four match points along the way. Zhang would have a more routine straight set win. In the second round, they dropped the doubles match against Princeton before rallying to each claim their singles matches to advance 2-1. Round three saw rematches against an Illinois duo that the Irish played in the other home event of the fall season, the Bobby Bayliss Invitational. Unfortunately, that round would not go the way of Notre Dame. The last round was singles only for those two where Zhang fell in three sets and Thompson lost in two close sets to the #42 player in the country from Louisville.
Up Next:
The Notre Dame men’s tennis team will hit the offseason and wrap up the academic semester before heading to winter break. They will return in January to begin the spring season and begin competing shortly thereafter.