The Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team opened play at the ITA Central Region Championships in Kalamazoo, Michigan on Friday, as two of the Spartans' doubles teams advanced to the round of 16 and all five singles players reached the round of 32.
All three of the Spartans' pairings received a first-round bye before beginning action in the round of 32 on Friday. CWRU senior Vishwa Aduru and graduate student Diego Maza, seeded second in the draw, bested Jacob Williams and Tim Steiner of Wheaton (Ill.) 8-1, while seventh-seeded sophomore Anmay Devaraj and senior Sahil Dayal claimed an 8-5 win over Rose-Hulman's Owen Reynolds and Rhian Senevirante. The Spartans' lone doubles loss on the day came from ninth-seeded junior Casey Hishinuma and graduate student Michael Sutanto, who fell 8-6 to Augustana's Arthur Hermange and David Larraga.
Doubles play in the main draw will resume on Saturday with the round of 16 and the quarterfinals. Aduru and Maza are set to face ninth-seeded Colin Scruggs and Jared Phillips of WashU, while Devaraj and Dayal will take on ninth-seeded Jack Wong and Robert Zhang of Chicago. In the consolation draw, Hishinuma and Sutanto will face Adrian's Jackson Wilcox and Sean Ruhf.
All five CWRU singles players also received a first-round bye and began play in the round of 64 on Friday afternoon. Devaraj, seeded 17th, defeated Rose-Hulman's Reynolds 6-0, 6-2, while Hishinuma, seeded ninth, was flawless in a 6-0, 6-0 win over Illinois Tech's Jordan Lauer. Junior Ajay Mahenthiran, also seeded ninth, picked up a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Martin Suarez of Anderson, and Sutanto, seeded fourth, bested North Central's Rafael Lessa 6-2, 6-1. Capping off the day, Maza, seeded 17th, defeated Wabash's Tharakesh Ashokar 6-2, 6-4.
Singles action will continue tomorrow afternoon with the rounds of 32 and 16. CWRU's matchups in the round of 32 include Devaraj against top-seeded Derek Hsieh of Chicago, Hishinuma against 17th-seeded Zachary Portnoy of Denison, Mahenthiran against 17th-seeded Anthony Payiavlas of Denison, Sutanto against 17th-seeded Finley Buelte of DePauw, and Maza against second-seeded Rishil Kondapaneni of Kenyon.
The Spartans will continue play at the ITA Central Region Championships on Saturday. In addition, the rest of the squad will be in action at the Big Red Invitational on Saturday, hosted by Denison University in Granville, Ohio.
