With the University of Toronto serving as host for the 2023 OUA Tennis Championships, the Varsity Blues utilized the home court advantage in their 5-2 quarter-final victory over the Ottawa Gee-Gees on Friday night at Mayfair Toronto East.

U of T entered the provincial championship as the No. 2 overall seed, but were challenged by the No. 7 seeded Ottawa Gee-Gees in the quarter-final showdown.

The Blues started strong with a sweep of the doubles matches on Friday. Top ranked pair Rassam Yazdi and Michael Chu proved to be too much for the Gee-Gees, leading off Toronto with an 8-3 win. Arden D'Aniello and Alexander Luchak then combined for an 8-4 victory, while Nikola Janev and Nathan Li teamed up for an 8-5 win to collect the doubles point.

Switching to singles action, the Blues earned four singles victories to secure the quarter-final win. D'Aniello continued his strong day with a dominant 6-0, 6-0 in the No. 2 slot for the Blues. The trio of Raghan Sundararaman (6-0, 6-1), Tyler Lunaria (6-0, 6-3), and Charles Zheng (6-1, 6-0) rounded out the quarter-final victories for Toronto.

With the win, the Blues advance to a Saturday (Oct. 7) semifinal matchup with the York Lions. First serve between the Toronto-rivals is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.