NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Six different CNU players logged at least one singles win and four added a doubles victory on the first day of the 2024-25 men's tennis season as the Captains hosted the CNU Duals on Saturday. Competition will continue through Sunday afternoon as Christopher Newport welcomed in some of the top competition in the region with Johns Hopkins, Mary Washington, Hampton, and Virginia Wesleyan in attendance. 

The day's performance was led by Ryan Monroe who captured a 2-0 start to the season in singles play. He scored a pair of wins over Division I opponents as he disposed of Marko Stoilkovski from Hampton University, 6-4, 6-4, before winning by retirement against Yanozie Amadike. He led the match against Amadike by a score of 6-4, 3-1 at the time of the retirement. 

CNU also saw the first career wins for rookies Rainer Christiansen and Gabe Smith as the freshmen added Division I victories of their own. Christiansen took down Aryan Arora from Hampton by a score of 6-2, 3-6, 1-0 (7) while Smith breezed by Tadej Mihajlovic in a 6-2, 6-0 match. Additionally, the two newcomers would pair up to earn a big win in doubles play as well against Amadike and Marko Stoilkovski. The Captains' freshmen tandem pulled out a hard-fought win in a tiebreaker, 8-7 (9-7). 

The rest of the singles wins came from Ashton Legum (1-0), Edvard Porsmyr Hansen (1-1), and Alex Seretis (1-1). Legum outlasted his opponent from Hampton, Donte Armbrister, by a count of 2-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-7); Porsmyr Hansen took down Mary Washington rookie Rithik Manchala in another three-setter, 6-1, 5-7, 1-0 (10-7), and; Seretis captured a 6-2, 6-4 win over Ryan Meyer from Mary Washington. 

The Captains added one more doubles victory before putting a close to the first day of action at the CNU Duals when Ahun Vodela and Alex Seretis captured an 8-5 win over Tadej Mihajlovic and Donte Armbrister from Hampton. 

The tournament field will return to action on Sunday morning starting at 10:00 am.