PHILADELPHIA – The Rich Bonfiglio era got off to a strong start Saturday as the University of Pennnsylvania men's tennis team downed Old Dominion, 6-1, at the Hecht Tennis Center.

The Quakers won at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles to snag the first point of the match, then put a stamp on the match with five singles wins.

Edoardo Graziani and Kevin Zhu, the reigning Northeast Regional Doubles champions and the seventh-ranked team in the country, picked up a 7-5 win at #1 and the Aditya Gupta/Harsh Parikh pairing took the tiebreaker in their match at #3 to put Penn up 1-0.

Zhu added a straight-set win at #2 singles, as did Manfredi Graziani and Baylor Sai, playing at #5 and #6, respectively; for Graziani, the victory marked his first in dual match play as a Quaker. Gupta dropped the first set of his match at #3, but responded with a 6-2 win in the second set, forcing a super tiebreaker he eventually took 10-5.

The final match of the day was the #1 battle between (Edoardo) Graziani and Younes Lalami, both ranked in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Top 100. After a 7-6 (3) win for Graziani in the opening set, the second set also went to a tiebreak, where Graziani seized control with five of the six points before the changeover en route to the win.

Up Next
Penn is back in action in two matches in an ITA Kickoff Weekend hosted by South Carolina next Saturday and Sunday. The Quakers will face the #9 Gamecocks Saturday, then either NC State or Virginia Commonwealth on Sunday.

DOUBLES
1 – E. Graziani/Zhu (P) def. Younes Lalami/Brandon Perez (ODU) – 7-5
2 – Jakob Cadonau/Codie van Schalkwyk (ODU) def. M. Graziani/Vakili (P) – 6-3
3 – Gupta/Parikh (P) def. Yanis Moundir/Cosme Rolland De Ravel (ODU) – 7-6 (4)

SINGLES
1 – E. Graziani (P) def. Younes Lalami (ODU) – 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4)
2 – Zhu (P) def. Francois Le Tallec (ODU) – 6-1, 6-2
3 – Gupta (P) def. Codie van Schalkwyk (ODU) – 3-6, 6-2, 10-5
4 – Cosme Rolland De Ravel (ODU) def. Parikh (P) – 6-3, 7-6 (2)
5 – M. Graziani (P) def.  Jakob Cadonau (ODU) – 6-2, 6-3
6 – Sai (P) def. Yanis Moundir (ODU) – 6-4, 6-4