Huskies Take First Loss of 2026 in Clash with Princeton

Tuesday, January 20

Seattle, Wash.

5:00 PM

University of Washington

Princeton

Photo by: Red Box Pictures

January 20, 2026 | Men's Tennis

UW - 1, PU - 6

By: UW Athletic Communications

SEATTLE – Washington's Men's Tennis team took their first loss of 2026 today with a closely contested 6-1 loss over visiting Princeton University at the Nordstrom Tennis Center. The Huskies are now 2-1 on the season and 1-1 overall at home.

Huskies Head Coach Rahim Esmail had this to say of his team tonight, "This was a great battle today. Princeton is a good team and I'm proud of the way we competed."

"Compete.", was certainly the theme of the match tonight against the Tigers. These Huskies did just that. They competed valiantly against an experienced and highly-ranked Princeton side. With the doubles win coming against the younger Husky pairings, upperclassmen Pearson and Purohit held their own against the 13^th -ranked doubles team of Ardila/Inchauspe with a 4-5, DNF while 45^th-ranked doubles paring Bigun/Sec split for this match each taking a new partner to face the Dawgs No. 2 of Kamendje/Plavsic and No. 3 Belday/Seo.

Going down 1-0 against an experienced side may have disheartened other squads, however these Huskies answered the call with courage and fight. Junior and 89^th-ranked Soham Purohit, led the fight with a classic against 11^th-ranked Paul Inchauspe. Exchanging blows akin to a heavyweight bout, each point going back-forth until someone broke, with the pair splitting sets until Purohit ran out of steam in the third, eventually going down 1-6 in the final set.

This fight was shown throughout the night, with four of the six matches lasting to the third set "…Compete Mode we call it, is has got to be at a high level all the time, and today it was." said Coach Esmail when asked about these matches going the distance.

The straight set exceptions being senior Brett Pearson and freshman Hyeonseok Seo.With Brett giving his all in a back and forth 3-6, 3-6 loss against Princeton's 99^th-ranked Sebastian Sec and Hyeonseok emerging once again victorious, with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Milan Markovits, his third win in three career matches. The underclassman cohort of Bein, Belday, and Kamendje all showed great poise in forcing third sets, however they came up just short in the end, dropping their third sets, 2-6, 6-7(3), 4-6 respectively. Of these matches Coach Esmail said, "It's a great learning experience and a great match to have early in the season." and "It's a 6-1 scoreline, but played like a 4-3 match."

A first round match up against South Florida at the ITA Kickoff Weekend from Austin, TX on Friday, Jan. 23^rd is next on the Huskies radar with a potential matchup with No. 2 Texas or UNC-Wilmington, on Saturday the 24^th, dependent on Fridays outcome.

For more information on the UW Men's Tennis Team download the GoHuskies app and follow @UW_MTennis on X and Instagram.

Washington Men's Tennis
January 20, 2026
Seattle, Wash. | Nordstrom Tennis Center | 5:00 PM PT

Final Score
Washington – 1
Princeton – 6

Singles
1. (#11) Paul Inchauspe (Pri) def. (#89) Soham Purohit (UW) – 6-4, 6-7(3), 1-6.
2. Fnu Nidunjianzan (Pri) def. Stephane Kamendje (UW) – 3-6, 6-4, 4-6.
3. Landon Ardila (Pri) def. Rohan Belday (UW) – 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(3).
4. (#99) Sebastian Sec (Pri) def. Brett Pearson (UW) – 3-6, 4-6.
5. Hyeonseok Seo (UW) def. Milan Markovits (Pri) – 7-5, 6-3.
6. Aleksandar Mitric (Pri) def. Daniel Bien (UW) – 7-5, 6-4, 2-6.
Order of Finish: 4, 5, 2, 3, 6, 1

Doubles
1. Pearson/Purohit (UW) vs. (#13) Inchauspe/Ardilo (Pri) – 4-5, DNF
2. Kamendje/Plasvic (UW) vs. Nidunjianzan/Bigun (Pri) – 3-6
3. Belday/Seo (UW) vs. Sec/Mitric (Pri) – 3-6
Order of Finish: 3,1

Match Notes:
Washington 2-0
Princeton 1-0
Playing out Singles