The Emory University men's tennis team opened the UAA Tournament with a convincing 5-1 win over Brandeis in the first round of play on Friday morning in Altamonte Springs, Florida. 

The fourth seeded Eagles defeated the five seed Brandeis Judges by a score of 5-1, going 2-1 in doubles and 3-0 in singles play, to advance to the semi-finals on Saturday at 12:30 PM where they will face off against the first seeded Case Western Reserve Spartans. The Spartans won their opening match over the eighth seeded Rochester Yellowjackets by a match score of 5-0. 

The Eagles opened the morning with a pair of tight victories in doubles as the No. 2 doubles team of senior Andrew Esses and freshman John Lasanajak won their match 8-5 while the No. 3 doubles team of juniors Nolan Shah and Samuel Dean pulled out a narrow 8-6 victory to put the Eagles up 2-1 heading into singles play. 

Freshman Dean Kamenev impressed in the No. 3 singles spot winning his match 6-2, 6-1 to earn the Eagles third point of the day. Kamanev was quickly followed up by sophomore Emilio Van Cotthem who won his match 6-1, 6-2 in the five hole. Shah put the match against the Judges away, winning in the No. 2 singles spot 6-3, 6-3 to advance Emory to the semi-finals. 

At the conclusion of the match, Esses was in a battle in the second set in the one spot as he led 6-4, 4-3. Both graduate student Charlie James (6-4, 4-6) in the four hole and junior Brandon Cohen (4-6, 6-2) in the six spot were headed to a third set tiebreaker when the match was halted.