SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College men's tennis reach reached the finals in the top-four singles finals and are alive in both doubles semifinals as part of a very successful first day at the annual Garnet Charger Invitational, held on Saturday at the Union Tennis Courts.
 
Several Garnet Chargers had undefeated days on Saturday, led by first-year Vivaan Gupta with a perfect 4-0 record and both senior Ian Schunk and first-year David Wang with 3-0 marks. In all, 11 different players had at least one victory for Union on the day.
 
In the "A" Singles flight, Schunk won a pair of matches to reach tomorrow's final. He took down Drew's Daniel Arcari, 6-1, 6-2, in the quarterfinals and then outlasted St. Lawrence's Edvin Strandberg in a supertiebreaker, 4-6, 6-0, (11-9). Union's other two "A" entries fell in opening-round supertiebrekaers, as first-year Jesus Sosa dropped a 6-2, 1-6, (10-4) match to Drew's Jesse Faro and classmate Arhan Gupta lost by a 6-1, 2-6, (11-9) score to SLU's Broderick Pinto.
 
The "B" singles bracket was dominated by the Garnet Chargers, with senior Ben Jacobs and first-year Vivaan Gupta both winning twice to set up an all-Union final tomorrow. Gupta earned straight-set wins over Drew's Dikshan Chhikara (6-4, 6-2) and SLU's John Hill-Edgar (6-4, 6-0), while Jacobs took out Aidan Baracao (SLU) by a 7-5, 6-4 score and added an 6-4, 6-2 victory over Oneonta's William Schmid.
 
Union was well represented in the "C" Singles bracket as well, winning every match against non-Union players. Sophomore Solen Bellemare reached the final thanks to a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Oneonta's Ryan Geller and a 6-1, 6-4 triumph over SLU's Jake David. Classmate Shreyas Kode also reached the final with two wins, taking down SLU's Michael Chaho, 6-0, 6-2, before getting past senior teammate Seth Prusko by a 6-3, 6-2 score. Prusko reached the semifinals by knocking off Drew's Ty Gelijns, 6-0, 6-4.
 
First-year David Wang will represent Union in the "D" Singles final after two Saturday wins. He started the day by beating Oneonta's Peter Pitaleff, 6-0, 6-1, and then got past SLU's Armaan Walia, 7-5, 6-3. Sophomore Daniel Saxe also won his quarterfinal match with a pair of 6-1 sets over Drew's Sergey Kravchenko before falling to SLU's Ryan Tingley in a supertiebreaker, 6-4, 1-6, (10-8).
 
Junior Christian Crowder will take part in the "E" Singles semifinals tomorrow after an 8-5 win over Drew's Owen Reynolds in his first match.
 
Jacobs and Sosa are alive in the "A" Doubles bracket for Union after an 8-5 win over Nicolas Mobayed and Dikshan Chhikara of Drew in the quarterfinals.
 
All three Union entries made the semifinals in the "B" Doubles bracket. In the top half of the bracket, Wang and junior Christian Crowder defeated Oneonta's Braden Greenberg and Sean Lippman in the quarterfinals. It will be all Union in the bottom semifinals after Kode and Arhan Gupta defeated Oneonta's Nathaniel Inzerillo and Ryan Geller, 8-1, and Schunk and Vivaan Gupta picked up a pair of wins, taking down Drew's Owen Reynolds and Rharell Longenback (8-0) and SLU's Charles Schepens and Ryan Tingley (8-2).
 
Union will be back on the court tomorrow beginning at 9 a.m. for day two of the Garnet Charger Invitational.