{"id":619152,"date":"2026-05-02T11:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T11:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/619152\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T11:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T11:50:09","slug":"mens-tennis-tops-38-arkansas-in-a-ncaa-first-round-thriller-4-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/619152\/","title":{"rendered":"Men’s Tennis Tops #38 Arkansas in A NCAA First Round Thriller, 4-3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


\n
\n <\/p>\n

\"#2<\/p>\n

Next Match:<\/p>\n

at #2 (6) Texas Christian University<\/p>\n

5\/2\/2026 | 4:00 p.m. CT<\/p>\n


\n PlaySight \n <\/p>\n


\n May. 02 (Sat) \/ 4:00 p.m. CT \n <\/p>\n

\"#2<\/p>\n


\n at\u00a0#2 (6) Texas Christian University \n <\/p>\n

History <\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

FORT WORTH, Texas — The 29th-ranked Cornell men’s tennis team opened NCAA Tournament play with a dramatic 4-3 victory over No. 38 Arkansas on Friday afternoon at TCU’s Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center. The Big Red improved to 19-3, while Arkansas closed its season at 16-15.<\/p>\n

The win\u00a0marked the second time in three seasons Cornell has eliminated Arkansas in the opening round at TCU, also defeating the Razorbacks 4-0 in 2024. Friday’s match also served as the final varsity match\u00a0for Arkansas, which announced in April it will discontinue men’s tennis.<\/p>\n

Cornell was forced to rally after dropping the doubles point, as Arkansas claimed wins at Nos. 2 and 3 after some spirited tennis.<\/p>\n

The Big Red responded in singles with a strong showing through the middle of the lineup. Freshman Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar<\/a> put Cornell on the board with a 6-2, 7-5 win at No. 4, and junior Felipe Pinzon<\/a> followed with a three-set victory at No. 5, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, to give Cornell a 2-1 lead.<\/p>\n


\n <\/p>\n

Arkansas took the match lead with wins at Nos. 2 and 6, setting up a tense finish.<\/p>\n


\n <\/p>\n

At the top of the lineup, Rodrigo Fernandes<\/a> delivered a statement performance, knocking off No. 17 Jakub Vrba in three sets, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. The victory marked his second straight three-set win over a top-20 opponent and tied the match heading into the final contest. Fernandes topped two-time NCAA singles champ and fifth-ranked Michael Zheng of Columbia in the regular season finale, handing the Big Red its third Ivy title in program history.<\/p>\n

Moments later, Petar Teodorovic<\/a> clinched the match at No. 3, rallying for a 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 victory over Ben Weintraub to send the Big Red into the second round.<\/p>\n

The win continued Cornell’s late-season surge, as the Big Red improved to 14-1 in its last 15 matches, including 10 victories over ranked opponents.<\/p>\n

Cornell will face either No. 2 TCU or Denver on Saturday, May 2 at 4 p.m. CT for a spot in the regional semifinal.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Next Match: at #2 (6) Texas Christian University 5\/2\/2026 | 4:00 p.m. CT PlaySight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-619152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}