Advik Mareedu Moves on to ITA Cup National Finals for CMS Men's Tennis

ROME, Ga. - For the second straight day, Advik Mareedu prevailed in a second-set tiebreaker to earn a straight-set win at the ITA Cup, defeating Reid Staples of Bowdoin 6-4, 7-6 in the semifinals to move on to tomorrow's national championship match.

A day ago, Mareedu defeated Thomas Yu of Johns Hopkins 6-2, 7-6 and won all seven points in the tiebreaker to advance through to the semifinals. This time, it was a little tighter, as he saved two set points on his serve down 5-6 in the second, and then fell behind 6-5 in the tiebreaker for a third set point. However, he responded with the next three points to earn an 8-6 tiebreaker win and move on to tomorrow's championship match. 

Mareedu will meet Tristan Bradley, also of Bowdoin, in the finals after Bradley knocked off the top seed, Aiden Drover-Mattinen of RPI, 6-2, 6-1. Bradley opened the tournament by defeating Caleb Wilkins of Chapman, 6-4, 6-4, who Mareedu defeated in the ITA West Regional finals 6-3, 6-4. 

Matthew Robinson and Christian Settles competed in the quarterfinals on Friday afternoon, but dropped a three-setter, falling to Shawn Berdia and Jason Shuler of Williams. Robinson and Settles won the first set 6-3, but the Williams duo bounced back to level the match with a 6-3 second set and then took the 10-point tiebreaker for the third set 10-7. The Stag pair then closed out their trip with a 6-3, 6-4 win over regional foes Ashton Ellis and Oscar Roy of Southwestern. 

Mareedu becomes the first Stag to reach the ITA Cup finals since Skyler Butts was a finalist in 2013. Michael Starr was the last champion for CMS in singles, winning in 2006. He will meet an opponent in Tristan Bradley who has earned All-America honors in doubles in an abbreviated 2019-20 season, and had a 12-9 record at No. 1 singles for the Polar Bears last year.