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This weekend, the Yale men’s tennis team returned to Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center for the Yale Invitational, where they welcomed players from seven schools across the northeast.

The invitational ran Friday to Sunday. The field included Fairfield University, Marist College, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Quinnipiac University, Boston College, Brown University and Columbia University. 

Michael Sun ’23 won a pair of straight-set matches to reach his flight finals. Rookie Vignesh Gogineni ’26 battled against Columbia’s Sachin Palta in a triple-set match (6–1, 3–6, 6–2) to reach his flight finals.

“Competing with the guys on our own courts for the first time was a great experience for me,” Gogineni told the News. “I will be focusing on having consistent practices and following my rituals and routines ahead of the competition in Georgia.”

Renaud Lefevre ’24 also fought through two straight-set victories to reach the finals. After beating Quinnipiac’s Ayato Arakaki (6–0, 7–6), he bested Marist’s Christian Mills in his second match (6–4, 6–3).

Aidan Reilly ’25 barely missed his flight final, losing in his second round match to NJIT’s Pablo Perez Ramos (2–6, 6–3, 6–4). He toppled Boston College’s Mai Gao 6–3, 7–5 in the first round of play.

Walker Oberg ’25, Luke Neal ’25 and Eric Li ’26 lost in their first round of singles. Oberg fell to Brown’s Roger Chou (6–4, 3–6, 7–6), Neal lost to NJIT’s Pablo Perez Ramos (6–4, 7–6) and Marist’s Tomas Gomez toppled Li (7–5, 6–4).

The matches began at noon and lasted into the evening on Friday while Saturday and Sunday matches began at 9 a.m. and lasted into the afternoon.

On Saturday, five Bulldogs competed in doubles. Partners Oberg and Reilly picked up two wins against NJIT and Brown before falling to Boston College’s Will Kasten and Jake Vassel. 

Meanwhile, Gogineni and Neal defeated Boston College’s Mai Gao and Max Motlagh and Quinnipiac’s Ayato Arakaki and Shaurya Sood but lost to Columbia’s Hugo Hashimoto and Sachin Palta.

Lefevre and Sun tallied three wins in doubles by beating Fairfield’s Jonathan Olive-Blanco and Keean Shah, NJIT’s Pavel Petrov and Oscar Callo Von Platen and Marist’s Dylan Friedman and Christian Mills.

“The highlight of this weekend was definitely getting some good wins with Michael,” said Lefevre. “Last time we played together we didn’t do so well, so the invite this weekend served as a good redemption.”

Next weekend, Theo Dean ’24, Sun, Reilly, Oberg, Neal and Gogineni will venture to Georgia, where they will compete in the Georgia Tech Invitational.

Shervin Dehmoubed ’25, Li and Lefevre will next compete in the spring, when the team’s regular season officially begins.

“Georgia will be a good chance to get more matches,” said Neal. “It’s always fun to travel with the team and there will be a lot of high levels of competition there.”

The Georgia Tech Invitational at the Ken Byers Tennis Complex in Atlanta will be the team’s last competition this fall.