Three Case Western Reserve University singles players and three doubles pairings remained alive at the ITA Fall Central Regional Championships in St. Louis, Missouri, reaching the round of 16 of the main draws after one day of play.
CWRU players went a combined 6-0 in singles play and 5-1 in doubles matches during the day.
Three of the four Spartans doubles pairing remained alive after two rounds of play on Friday and will continue to the round of 16 on Saturday. After receiving a first-round bye, the top-seeded pairing of senior James Hopper and junior Vishwa Aduru defeated Otterbein's Branden Wall and Jake McDavitt 8-0. Seventh-seeded sophomores Ansh Shah and Casey Hishinuma also won off a first-round bye, topping Joe Patton and Jacob Stockhausen of Wittenberg 8-2. Junior Michael Sutanto and sophomore Ajay Mahenthiran secured an 8-2 win over Webster's Alex Pinkson and Matt Birchmeier in the round of 64, and then upset ninth-seeded Cole Metzger and Thomas Partridge of DePauw 8-7 (5) in the round of 32. CWRU's fourth doubles pairing, senior Chris Provenzano and junior Sahil Dayal earned an 8-4 win over Allegheny's Anton Hedlund and Ethan Carr but fell 8-5 in the second round to fourth-seeded Jack Bulger and Marc-Lennart Harms of Denison.
The round of 16 of the doubles draw will begin on Saturday at 8:00 a.m. CT, followed by the quarterfinals at 9:45 a.m. Hopper and Aduru will face ninth-seeded Daniel Tulchinskiy and Oleksyi Vyshyvanyuk of Lake Forrest, with the winner taking on the victor of the match between Sutanto and Mahenthiran and eighth-seeded Scott Yamamoto and Gaurav Singh of WashU. Shah and Hishinuma will face ninth-seeded Hudson Beaudoin and John Walentowicz of Chicago in the round of 16, with the winner taking on either third-seeded Andrei Leonov and Sachin Das of Chicago or ninth-seeded Andy Mackler and Ethan Green of Denison.
Hopper, the top-seeded player in the singles draw, bested Alvaro Alonso-Sanchez of Wabash 6-1, 6-1 and Javier Suarez Balsera of North Central 6-2, 6-2 in his first two matches of the competition, as he looks to win his third-straight regional singles crown. Aduru, seeded third in the tournament, earned wins over John Carroll's Grant Sarnowski, 6-1, 6-1, and Capital's Leonardo Abreu, 6-3, 6-1. Shah, who is seeded fifth, picked up a 6-0, 6-0 win over Joey Keal of Hanover and a 6-4, 6-2 win over Carr from Allegheny.
The singles round of 16 matches will begin at noon CT, with Hopper facing 11th-seeded Luis Platas of Kenyon, Aduru taking on 10th-seeded Hedlund of Allegheny, and Shah playing 16th-seeded Thomas Kallarakal of Kenyon. Quarterfinal matches will follow at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, with the semifinals and final matches slated for Sunday.
CWRU's three players in the 'B' draw, Hishinuma, Mahenthiran, and Sutanto, did not get a chance to play on Friday after matches were delayed due to rain.
The doubles semifinals are scheduled for 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, followed by the championship match at 9:30 a.m. Updated results from the tournament are available at https://colleges.wearecollegetennis.com/Competitions/WashingtonUniversityInSaintLouisM/Tournaments/draws/C12BC2F6-384C-425F-9A01-1953E589C739/A77D9785-DB98-40A5-801B-EB6E8BA8D5AB.
