The Cornell men’s tennis team will play against Arkansas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, according to an April 27 announcement. The match is scheduled for Friday, May 1 at TCU’s Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center. If Cornell wins, it will advance to face either Denver or host and sixth-seeded TCU in the second round.
This matchup is a repeat of the 2024 NCAA first round, which also took place in Fort Worth. In that meeting, Cornell defeated Arkansas with a 4-0 sweep before losing to TCU in the next round. Arkansas comes into this year’s tournament after announcing that its men’s tennis program will be discontinued following the 2025-26 season.
Cornell enters the tournament as Ivy League champion and holds a No. 29 ranking from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). The team has won 13 of its last 14 matches and secured nine victories over ranked opponents during that stretch. Notable wins include matches against Louisville, Yale, Penn (twice), Memphis, Middle Tennessee, Princeton and Columbia.
Head coach Silviu Tanasoiu leads Cornell with a record of 204-109 since joining in 2011. Under his leadership, Cornell has won two Ivy titles and made five NCAA appearances; prior to his arrival, the program had just one Ivy title and one NCAA berth since league play began in 1956.
Sophomore Rodrigo Fernandes leads Cornell’s lineup as No. 62 nationally with a record of 23-10 at the top singles spot. Other key contributors include Eric Verdes (11-9), Petar Teodorovic (14-10), Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar (23-5), Felipe Pinzon (15-8) and Aman Sharma (11-9). In doubles competition, Senthil Kumar and Rushil Khosla have posted a record of 19-5; Pinzon and Teodorovic are at 20-3; Fernandes and Verdes are at 10-7—all three pairs have earned national rankings this season.
Arkansas enters ranked No.38 under head coach Jay Udwadia but is currently on a four-match losing streak against other NCAA Tournament teams. Jakub Vrba is ranked No.18 nationally in singles for Arkansas while Eric Padgham and Ben Weintraub hold a No.30 doubles ranking for their team.
