Yale Athletics

The Yale Men’s Tennis team competed at the ITA Regionals hosted by Harvard this past weekend, with Bulldogs hoping to punch their ticket to the NCAA Individual Championship. 

Vignesh Gogineni ’26 advanced to the finals of the competition, winning an automatic bid to the NCAAs. Two other Bulldogs, Krish Gupta ’28 and Eric Li ’26, made it to the quarterfinals of the singles bracket.

In the round of 64, Gogineni cruised past Niagara’s Tanner Bedard 6–4, 6–2. In the round of 32, Gogineni once again was victorious, beating Harvard’s Mitchell Lee 6–4, 6–1, and he followed that up by beating Cornell’s Eric Verdes 6–2, 6–4 in the round of 16.

“I knew going in it would be a tough draw, and that it would take five really good matches to get to where I wanted to be,” Gogineni told the News. “I also knew that I’d be facing mostly Ivy competitors, which meant that the competition would be tough, but I was familiar with a lot of my opponents and what I needed to do to win.”

In the quarterfinals, Gogineni handled Cornell opponent Nathan Mao in a close 7–6 (7–3), 5–7, 6–1 match. 

Gogineni came into the semifinals well aware of what he needed to do to win. He had played against his opponent, Adit Sinha, also from Cornell, several times throughout the years in junior tennis tournaments and through college. Gogineni once again steamrolled a Big Red player, beating Sinha 6–1, 6–1. At that point, Gogineni was strongly outnumbered as the only Yalie left.

“A lot of my pre-match preparation was mentally preparing myself and calming myself down, worrying only about the process and taking it one point at a time rather than thinking about the outcome of the match as a whole,” he said.

In the ITA Regionals, advancing to the championship round guarantees you entry to the NCAA Individual Championships, so Gogineni decided to finally take it easy on the Big Red. He and Cornell’s Radu Papoe agreed to be named regional co-champions rather than play a final match.

Having qualified for the NCAA Division I Singles Championship, Gogineni is now exempt from any further ITA qualification tournaments and will compete at Baylor University from Nov. 19 through 24 in hopes of bringing home the national title. 

Gogineni is the first Yale Men’s Tennis player in seven years to qualify for the ITA Regional Championship. A Yalie has not won the entire competition since 1922.

“My main goal is to go down there and have fun. I’m not really setting any expectations, but I’m looking forward to the test and getting valuable experience from playing against the best players in the country,” said Gogineni. “I wouldn’t be here without all of the support from my teammates and coaches, so while I feel like I earned this opportunity and am playing for myself, I also am playing for my teammates and coaches and look forward to representing Yale.”

Gogineni is the first Yale Men’s Tennis player in seven years to qualify for the NCAA Championship.