Box Score
AUSTIN, Texas (SMU) – No. 32 SMU Men’s Tennis defeated No. 37 Princeton 4-2 to advance to the second round of the NCAA Championship at Weller Tennis Center in Austin, Texas, on Friday.
This is SMU’s first NCAA Championship match win since 2016 and its first under Head Coach Grant Chen. Georgi Georgiev, Krish Arora and Noah McDonald won their first NCAA Championship matches.
The Mustangs won the doubles point before extending the lead to 2-0 by winning the first singles point from Georgiev. Princeton came back to make it 2-2, but SMU won courts four and six to clinch the match at 4-2.
Georgiev and Vikas Deo improved to 13-6 in doubles play, while Georgiev’s singles record improved to 17-5 this season.
Arora nabbed another singles win and is now 14-11 this season. McDonald grabbed his 12th win for a 12-9 record.
Jerry Barton and Trevor Svajda are now 14-5 in doubles play.
This is SMU’s first match win without a point from Svajda, with him on the lineup, since beating Florida on Feb. 7, 2025.
SMU will play the second round match of the NCAA Championship at 4 pm CT on Saturday. The Mustangs await the winner of the match between Texas A&M Corpus Christi and No. 2 overall seed Texas.
How it Went
SMU took the first lead by winning courts one and three of double play.
No. 54 Trevor Svajda and Jerry Barton won against Paul Inchauspe and Top Nidunjianzan (6-2) on court one before Vikas Deo and Georgi Georgiev clinched the first point by defeating Sebastian Sec and Meecah Bigun (6-2) on court three.
Georgiev extended the lead by winning his match on court two against Top Nidujianzan (6-4, 6-2) in dominant fashion.
Princeton closed the gap to 2-2 by winning courts one and three of singles play, but Krish Arora responded with a win on court four against Sebastian Sec (6-3, 6-4) to make it 3-2 for SMU.
Noah McDonald clinched the winner on court six against Milan Markovits in two tiebreakers (7-6(4), 7-6(2)).
Doubles Scores
1. No. 54 Trevor Svajda / Jerry Barton def. Paul Inchauspe / Top Nidunjianzan (6-2)
2. Alex Finkelstein / Krish Arora vs. Aleks Mitric / Landon Ardila (2-5 UF)
3. Vikas Deo / Georgi Georgiev def. Sebastian Sec / Meecah Bigun (6-2)
Order of Finish: 1, 3
Singles Scores
1. No. 6 Paul Inchauspe def. No. 2 Trevor Svajda (6-4, 6-2)
2. Georgi Georgiev def. Top Nidunjianzan (6-2, 6-1)
3. Landon Ardila def. Alex Finkelstein (6-3, 7-5)
4. Krish Arora def. Sebastian Sec (6-3, 6-4)
5. Jerry Barton vs. Aleks Mitric (7-6(4), 5-4 UF)
6. Noah McDonald def. Milan Markovits (7-6(4), 7-6(2))
Order of Finish: 2, 1, 3, 4, 6
