ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Though they officially wrapped up their 2024 season with their second national title in three years, four University of Chicago men's tennis student-athletes hung back to try and snag some more hardware at the NCAA Individual Championships. Though they didn't bring back any more trophies to Chicago, the four Maroons that participated showed the grit and determination that got them the title of best in the nation as a team.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Singles: Emil Grantcharov
  • UChicago's top singles player opened the individual championship first round match against Mizerski of George Fox. Grantcharov dropped the first set via a 6-0 score but came back to force a deciding third with a 6-3 middle stanza victory. Things nearly got as close as they could in that final set but the Bruins representative was able to pull things out and end Grantcharov's time with a 7-5 win.
• Singles: Derek Hsieh
  • The second solo player in the Maroons usual team lineup found success in the first few rounds of the tournament and started things off with a come from behind win in the first round. Hsieh got down 6-7 to his TCNJ competitor but came back with victories of 6-2 and 6-4 to advance. The second-round win came a little easier as he was able to advance to the quarterfinals with a 7-6, 6-1 win over his opponent from fellow UAA school NYU.
  • A familiar foe in Joshua Bode from Concordia-Texas, the team the Maroons took down in the second round of the NCAA tournament, awaited Hsieh in the quarterfinals. Thankfully history repeated itself once again as the UChicago representative prevailed with the three-set match falling in his favor 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. However, he fell just a little bit short of his end goal. Hsieh ended up falling in the semifinals 6-1, 6-4 to bring his campaign to an end.
• Doubles: Andrei Leonov/Pat Otero
  • The Maroons top doubles pair took on Theron/Wicklund of Sewanee but fell behind after a first set loss of 6-4. Leonov and Otero battled back however and took the next frame 6-4 to even things at 1-1. However, they couldn't complete the comeback as they saw their individual tournament end in the first round with a third set score of 6-3 in favor of the Tigers.

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