The University of Toronto Varsity Blues tennis teams head to Mayfair Parkway for the 2018 OUA Championships this weekend, October 5-7.

Toronto's men have placed second at the last two OUA championships. They head into the tournament as the No. 2 seed with a 3-3 record, and will take on the No. 7 Brock Badgers in quarter-final action on Friday at 10:30 a.m.

The team will rely on veterans to lead the charge. Felix Fan makes the jump to the No. 1 spot after serving as Toronto's No. 2 in 2017. The fourth-year management major only dropped two games all of last year. He has yet to play this season but is a huge boost to the Varsity Blues line-up.

Brett Stinson is penciled in as Toronto's No. 2 player. The third-year commence major battled top players throughout the season. One of his best matches was against McGill, when he fought back to win a three-set thriller (3-6, 7-6, 10-2) in late September. He has also been partnered with Andrew Bourne-Kaponeridis in doubles and the two have lost just one match. 

Others players to keep an eye on are veteran Nathan Wong and freshmen Eric Cherniy.

U of T's women will be looking to improve upon last year's bronze-medal performance. They enter the tournament as the No. 3 with a 3-2 record and face the No. 6 Waterloo Warriors in the quarter-final round on Friday at 12:00 p.m.

Last year's OUA rookie of the year, Mara Stroe is the key player to this roster. From the start of the season, the second-year co-op management and international business major was relied upon to dual top players around the OUA in both singles and doubles. At the OUA championships last year, the Ajax, Ont., native won two of her three singles matches.

Fellow second-year and Stroe's doubles pattern, Samar Qaedizadeh, hopes to follow suit. She recently won her last singles match versus Montreal's No. 2 player in late September. The duo of Stroe and Qaedizadeh also defeated Western's top doubles pair to kick off the 2018 season.

Alara Emigrag is experiencing a very good 2018 campaign so far. The third-year architecture major has a singles record of 4-1. Two other women that are vital for the team's success are Adelaida Allakhverdiyeva and Salma Dessouki. They're ranked second and fifth respectfully on U of T's roster heading into the OUA Championships.

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