CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Trinity University men's tennis junior Kishan Kersten (Plano, Texas / West) was eliminated from the NCAA Division III Singles Championship, while the doubles team of Kersten and fellow junior Jared Perry (Tucson, Ariz. / Catalina Foothills) won its opening round and advanced to the Quarterfinals in the Doubles Tournament on Saturday.

Playing in his first NCAA Singles Tournament, Kersten lost 6-3, 6-3 to #5 seed Shrikeshav Murugesan from University of Chicago (IL). Kersten broke Murugesan's serve to take the early lead but also had his serve broken to even the match 1-1. After falling behind 2-1, Kersten then won two straight to take the lead; however, Murugesan won the next four games to take the 6-3 win. The players held serve the first four games until Murugesan broke a 2-2 tie by winning the next three games. Kersten broke the streak to make it 5-3 but was unable to continue that momentum to force a third set.

Later that afternoon, Kersten and Perry teamed up for a 6-4, 6-3 win over Alexander Sinclair and Yu Tanimoto of Rochester Institute of Technology (NY) in the first round of doubles action. The Tiger duo lost the opening set but rattled off three straight wins to take a 3-1 lead. The two doubles teams traded games from there and the Tigers took the 6-4 win. In the second set, both teams broke serves to start and then traded games until Sinclair and Tanimoto led 3-2. That's when Kersten and Perry made their move, winning four straight games to finish the victory and advance to the next round. This is the first NCAA Doubles Championships for the Tiger duo, though Perry competed at the 2024 NCAA Singles Tournament.

Up Next
Kersten and Perry will play in the NCAA Doubles Quarterfinals tomorrow against the winner of #2 seeds Ruilin Feng and Ajay Kartik from Emory University (GA) and Alex Ganchev and Sacha Maes from Tufts University (MA).