Orlando, Fla. – The No. 8 seeded Duquesne University men's tennis team rallied back to take down No. 9 Fordham, 4-1 in the opening round of the Atlantic 10 Championships on Thursday morning at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida.

With the win, the Dukes improve to 8-11 overall and advance to the quarterfinals tomorrow morning. The opening round victory is the first for Duquesne since the 2021-22 campaign, where the knocked off Fordham, 4-0.

It was a back-and-forth affair during doubles competition as Fordham jumped out to an early victory at the third position. Duquesne would rally at the No. 1 spot as seniors Kaipo Marshall and Tamirlan Teberikov captured a 7-6 (5) victory over Nicholas Kanazirev and Dhillon Virdee-Oakley before it came down to the No. 2 doubles with sophomores Alfrendo Vogelaar and Keita Duclos. The duo battled back as it went to the tie-breaker, where Gio Soemarno and John Mascone came away with a 7-6 (5) victory to take the early point.

The Dukes would flip the script in the singles competition, winning four straight matches to collect the win. Marshall would kick things off with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Kanazirev at the top spot before Vogelaar secured a 6-4-6-0 win at the No. 4 slot over Mascone. At the third singles, Duclos tallied a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 win over Virdee-Oakley before graduate student Jin Dassanayake secured the win for Duquesne with a 7-6 (3), 6-4 triumph over Bingru Chen at the four spot.

UP NEXT
Duquesne advanced to the quarterfinals, where they'll battle top-seeded VCU tomorrow, March 26 at 9:00 a.m. Live coverage is available in the Championship Central page.

Singles Competition
1. Kaipo Marshall (DUQ) def. Nicholas Kanazirev (FOR) 6-2, 6-2
2. Tamirlan Teberikov (DUQ) vs. Gio Soemarno (FOR) 7-5, 6-5, DNF
3. Keita Duclos (DUQ) def. Dhillon Virdee-Oakley (FOR) 6-3, 3-6,6-2
4. Alfrendo Voeglaar (DUQ) def. John Mascone (FOR) 6-4, 6-0
5. Jin Dassanayake (DUQ) def. Bingru Chen (FOR) 7-6(3), 6-4
6. Stepan Mozhaev (FOR) vs. Bode Vance (DUQ) 6-2, 3-6, 3-0, DNF
Order of Finish: 1, 4, 3, 5

Doubles Competition
1. Kaipo Marshall/Tamirlan Teberikov (DUQ) def. Nicholas Kanazirev/Dhillon Virdee-Oakley (FOR) 7-6(5)
2. Gio Soemarno/John Mascone (FOR) def. Keita Duclos/Alfrendo Vogelaar (DUQ) 7-6(5)
3. Bingru Chen/Stefan Stojanovic (FOR) def. Pierce Manning/Bode Vance (DUQ) 6-3
Order of Finish: 3, 1, 2