Princeton Tops Penn, Advances To ECAC Championship Final Against Columbia

Saturday, February 14

Princeton, NJ

6:00 PM

Princeton University

Penn

Photo by: Andy Mead

Princeton Tops Penn, Advances To ECAC Championship Final Against Columbia

February 14, 2026 | Men's Tennis

As the final point splashed off of Aleksandar Mitric's racket, the Princeton men's tennis team had itself a win, and the ECAC Championships had a no-doubt-about-it finals matchup set for Sunday afternoon.

Mitric's win at No. 6 singles finished off a 4-0 Princeton win over Penn in the tournament's second semifinal, setting up Sunday's final to match the second-seeded Tigers against top-seed Columbia, who defeated Cornell 4-0 in the first semifinal. The match at the Si Qin Family Indoor Family Tennis Center will begin at 3.

Princeton and Columbia have been dominant so far, with all four of their matches the last two days having been decided by 4-0 scores.

The double points against Penn went to Princeton with wins by Paul Inchauspe and Landon Ardila at No. 1 and Top Nidunjianzan and Meecah Bigun at No. 2. Inchauspe and Nidunjianzan won in straight sets at No. 1 and No. 2 singles to make it a 3-0 Tiger lead, leaving the winning point up to either Mitric or Milan Markovits at No. 5. When Mitric finished his match, Markovits was up a set and up 5-3 in the second.

The highlight of the match Sunday figures to be the match between Inchauspe and Columbia's Michael Zheng, who has won the last two NCAA individual titles. Inchauspe reached the semifinals in the most recent edition, where he lost to Zheng 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

"We played a great doubles point to get things started tonight," said Princeton head coach Billy Pate. "Penn has a very strong doubles lineup and we knew it would be a crucial point in the match. After that, we did a good job winning five close sets and establishing ourselves. We expected a tough, physical match and that's what it was. The guys locked in well and each of them did a great job maintaining the momentum to the finish line. We'll look to keep it going tomorrow versus Columbia in what promises to be an intense, high quality battle."

Princeton 4, Penn 0
Singles
No. 1 Paul Inchauspe (Pr) def. Manfredi Graziani 6-3, 6-3
No. 2 Top Nidunjianzan (Pr) def. Luka Butera 6-4, 6-2
No. 3 Landon Ardila (Pr) vs. Shaurya Bharadwaj (Pe) 3-6, 6-3, 3-2 (DNF)
No. 4 Sebastian Sec (Pr) vs. Justin Chung (Pe) 6-2, 3-6, 0-2 (DNF)
No. 5 Milan Markovits (Pr) vs. Adam Bain (Pe) 7-6 (7-4), 5-3 (DNF)
No. 6 Aleksandar Mitric (Pr) vs. Vojtech Vales (Pe) 6-4, 6-4
Order of finish: 1, 2, 6

Doubles
No. 1 Paul Inchauspe/Landon Ardila (Pr) def. Luka Butera/Manfredi Graziani 6-2
No. 2 Top Nidunjianzan/Meecah Bigun (Pr) def. Shaurya Bharadwaj/Vojtech Vales 6-3
No. 3 Aleksandar Mitric/Sebastian Sec (Pr) vs. Parashar Bharadwaj/Nischal Spurling (Pe) 5-4 (DNF)
Order of finish: 1, 2