It is hard to overstate our enthusiasm and excitement for the new school year. Vermont is a uniquely beautiful place this time of year, and the fact it coincides with our players returning to campus feels even better than a holiday! Our team worked incredibly hard this summer, competing in tournaments around the country and internationally and came back hungry to keep rising! We have two juniors, Sidney Huet and Reif Larsen, who are in Denmark and Italy respectively! We have a young and hungry squad with our current roster comprised of three seniors, two juniors, four sophomores, and four freshmen. Coach Andrew Thomson enters his 10th season back at Middlebury as a coach and Jake Cohen enters his 2nd season at Middlebury.
With less than a week of practice before our Midd Invite 2026, we knew it would be a fun challenge and a great way to test ourselves hosting our first fall tournament. We aimed to quickly integrate our freshmen into our team culture, and this group immediately displayed fantastic camaraderie and support during our first week of training!
Midd Invite 2026 Results
Although we displayed an expected degree of first match/first tournament jitters, our team gradually rose in competitive grit and level throughout the event allowing our team great success across all the singles and doubles flights! Here is an array of highlights worth shouting out:
Freshmen Success
All four freshmen (Eiji Fujita, Henry Groves, Arjun Reiland, and Hayden Williams) earned their first college victory on Saturday! It is immediate these four will make a huge imprint on our program from both a tennis and energy perspective.
Hayden Willaims (left) and Arjun Reiland (right) bringing some energy and fight! Eiji serving it up! Henry locked in!
A Flight Doubles Victory
In the A flight of doubles, we throttled the competition with freshmen Hayden Williams and Arjun Reiland making a deep run to the final winning three straight matches including a come from behind win after going down 0-4 in a proset! The only team to stop the run of our freshmen pair was two of our seniors Thehan Wijemanne and Noah Lewis who earned the A flight crown besting their teammates in the final!
Cool photo of our A flight doubles winners Thehan and Noah!
A Flight Singles Victory
In the A flight of singles, Middlebury again was a dominant force. Sophomore Andy Yim made run to semifinals picking up two come-from-behind victories after dropping first sets before falling to his teammate Thehan Wijemanne. On the other half of the draw, Noah Lewis earned three hard fought wins to earn his spot in the final facing his own doubles partner! Thehan Wijemanne capped his tournament by winning both A flights in a high-level final match against Noah!
Coaches and the winners of A Flight Singles and Doubles Thehan earning his first ever A Flight Win in Singles!
B Flight Singles Victory
Mirroring our A flight success, we also had three of four semifinalists in the B draw! Sophomore Anand Sahasrabudhe made a deep run to the semifinals earning two solid straight set wins on Saturday. Anand faced off in the semifinals versus his Panther teammate, senior Nikky Kondamuri. Nikky bested two opponents also on Saturday, including a three set win with a 10-poiint tiebreak to decide it. He then used that momentum on Sunday to earn a straight set win over Anand, which pointed him toward a second Panther vs Panther matchup against freshmen Hayden Williams. Hayden has won three straight matches in straight sets and was playing with confidence and fire. After a good battle, Hayden ended up earning the B flight title!
All smiles post win!
Full Results
Here are the links for the full list of results and full recap of the Midd Invite 2026.
Upcoming Fall Schedule
Next up is our 2026 Fall Regional ITA that we will host right here in Middlebury, September 25-27! After that we will point toward the Skidmore Invitational which will be played in Saratoga Springs, NY on October 10th and 11th.
Go Midd!
The Middlebury Men’s Tennis Coaching Staff
