Alexander Ekstrand Caps Men's Tennis Season in Singles Quarterfinals

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- The University of Chicago men's tennis team had its season come to an end on Sunday as their final two individuals bowed out in the quarterfinals.

Alexander Ekstrand reached the quarterfinals of the singles draw where he faced a tough matchup with the #3 player in the country from Bowdoin, Mark Kneiss. After Kneiss fell to Murugesan in the #1 singles match of the Team Quarterfinals on Tuesday, Ekstrand had a chance to hand him his second loss to a UChicago player in just six days. Ekstrand took control early in the match as he held and broke on a pair of massive break points to take a 2-1 lead. Then, following another quick hold, Ekstrand picked up another break on deuce point to extend the lead to 4-1. Kneiss did not go away as he battled to break back to 4-2, but Ekstrand broke for a third time and held his serve, both on deuce points, to win the set 6-3 with five of his six games being decided on deuce points.

In the second set, Kneiss drew first blood with a break to go up 3-1, but Ekstrand broke back for the third time with yet another deuce point win. After a hold, Ekstrand had another break opportunity with a 40-30 lead but Kneiss finally held on deuce point for the first time to remain on serve. The players then traded holds back and forth until 6-5 when Kneiss responded from down 0-30 in the final game to break serve with four consecutive points to win the set 7-5. In the final set, the deuce point luck finally swung to Kneiss as he won the first three games all on deuce point, and he would ride those breaks to a 6-2 win in the final set.

Shrikeshav Murugesan also reached the quarterfinals of the singles draw, but he was forced to withdraw prior to his quarterfinal match due to a nagging hip injury.

Ekstrand and Murugesan became the first University of Chicago teammates to both reach the quarterfinal round of the singles draw since Nicholas Chua and Erik Kerrigan in 2017. They are also just the fifth and sixth players in program history to reach the quarterfinals of the singles draw, joining

Derek Hsieh (2024) and Will Zhang (2009) as well as Chua and Kerrigan (2017).

Ekstrand wraps up his season with a 21-6 record overall and a 7-3 record against nationally-ranked opponents, and Murugesan ends his season with a 16-5 record and an 8-4 record against nationally-ranked opponents. Both individuals locked up their singles All-America honors with wins in the opening round of the singles tournament on Saturday.