A glance at the scoreboard in the men’s tennis team’s (15-8, 0-1 Ivy) conference opener against Yale (14-5, 1-0) this past Saturday would suggest a decisive 6-1 defeat for the Bears. But on the court, the contest felt far more like a close battle — and on multiple occasions, Bruno brought match or set losses within a few points of victory.
“From a distance, the optics are of a one-sided match,” Head Coach Mike Fried ’91 told The Herald. “The reality was very, very different.”
Robert Yang ’29 was the only Bear to win his singles match, triumphing in straight sets by margins of 6-4, 6-4 against Yale junior Jim Ji. The victory added another decisive win to Yang’s formidable month with no singles losses.
Doubles play came down to the wire, with several key moments slipping through Bruno’s grasp. The underdog Bears demonstrated their scrappiness, pushing some doubles matches to narrow margins.
Though the Bears were outmatched 6-1 in their first doubles matchup, Noah Hernandez ’26 and Zander Bravo ’26 followed with a decisive 6-4 victory against Yale’s Dylan Tsoi and Jason Shuler. The two Bears cleanly maintained service in the last game of the match, not letting a single point through. In the final point, Hernandez swiftly met the Bulldog’s service return with a tight cross-court backhand slice to seal the match.
In the deciding doubles matchup, Elliot Wasserman ’29 and Cole Oberg ’29 ultimately came up short 7-6 (7-3). In the tooth-and-nail struggle against the Bulldogs’ Ji and Eric Li, Oberg and Wasserman brought the battle up to a match point that could have won the overall doubles point for Bruno.
Up 6-5, Wasserman and Oberg were on the verge of breaking Yale’s service during their match point. But the Bulldogs turned the momentum with a ferocious overhand-smash winner and went on to win the match.
Though the outcome didn’t go Bruno’s way, Bravo emphasized his continued belief in his teammates. “I do believe that we were the better doubles team that day,” the senior told The Herald.
A similar theme played out on the singles courts. The Bears pulled several matches within reach but nonetheless failed to scrape together more than one decisive victory.
“We really had chances on every single court,” Bravo said.
Yang won 6-4 in straight sets against Ji. The first-year Bear controlled the momentum throughout the match, often backing the Bulldog toward the baseline and making Ji chase the ball while placing shots from closer to the net.
On a nearby court, Wasserman pushed his opponent to the third and final set before eventually losing as the Bulldogs prevailed in a tiebreaker. In the first set, Wasserman outlasted Li despite trailing 15-40 in the final game. Wasserman delivered an ace followed by a backhand drop shot to close out the set.
Bravo similarly was bested in a close match by a margin of 7-6, 6-4. He referred to the outing as a “50-50, dogfight match.”
“The entire match, it was tough to say one of us was completely controlling most of it,” Bravo added.
Fried expects to continue moments of brilliance on the court and said he is not lowering his expectations following Saturday’s loss. Fried said he is “proud of the progress” the team has made towards nabbing the “handful of big points that are determining the outcomes of matches.”
The team will look to win decisive points and create a breakthrough win against Columbia this Saturday in the Pizzitola Sports Center.
Chiupong Huang is a senior staff writer covering sports.
