Case Western Reserve University men's tennis players will make up two of the four remaining doubles pairings and three of the eight remaining singles players heading into the final day of competition at the ITA Central Regional Championships in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
In Saturday's doubles action, second seeded senior Vishwa Aduru and graduate student Diego Maza earned their spot in the semifinals with an 8-5 win over WashU's ninth-seeded duo of Colin Scruggs and Jared Phillips in the round of 16, followed by an 8-6 win against the sixth-seeded pairing of Pat Otero and Kane Kelley from Chicago in the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, seventh-seeded sophomore Anmay Devaraj and senior Sahil Dayal defeated ninth-seeded Jack Wong and Robert Zhang of Chicago 8-6 in the round of 16 and ninth-seeded Alejandro Gonzalez and Eric Zhang of Kenyon 8-3 in the quarterfinals.
The two Spartan pairings will face each other in the semifinals on Sunday at 9:00 a.m., with the winning duo advancing to the championship match at 10:00 a.m. The winning duo will guarantee itself a spot in the doubles draw at the 2023 ITA Cup in Rome, Georgia, marking the third-straight season that the Spartans will be represented at the event.
In the other semifinal match, Chicago's top-seeded duo of Derek Hsieh and Andrei Leonov will face the fourth-seeded pairing of Ethan Green and Kael Shah from Denison.
In the doubles consolation draw, ninth-seeded junior Casey Hishinuma and graduate student Michael Sutanto bested Sarthak Sharma and Dev Agrawal of Earlham 8-3 and David Rodriguez and Anton Hedlund of Allegheny by a score of 8-3. The duo face Dylan Lemon and Martin Suarez of Anderson tomorrow at 10:00 a.m.
In singles play on Saturday, Sutanto, the fourth seed, bested 17th-seeded Finley Buelte of DePauw 6-1, 6-2 in the round of 32 before picking up a three-set win over ninth-seeded Eric Kuo of WashU, 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-4. Junior Ajay Mahenthiran, seeded ninth, punched his ticket into the quarterfinals on Sunday with a 6-3, 6-2 win against 17th-seeded Anthony Payiavlas of Denison in the round of 32 and a 6-1, 6-2 win over eighth-seeded Kane Kelley from Chicago in the round of 16.
Sutanto and Mahenthiran will face each other in the quarterfinals on Sunday at 11:30 a.m.
Hishinuma, seeded ninth, came from behind to defeat 17th-seeded Zachary Portnoy of Denison, 1-6, 6-1, 6-0 in the round of 32 and earned a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 upset win over third-seeded Jared Phillips of WashU to reach the quarterfinals. He will take on third-seeded Emil Grantcharov of Chicago at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday.
Devaraj saw his run in the singles draw come to an end in the round of 32, suffering a loss to top-seeded Hsieh despite pushing the Chicago player to three sets, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3. Maza, seeded 17th in the singles draw, upset second-seeded Rihil Kondapaneni of Kenyon in the round of 32, but suffered a 6-2, 6-2 loss to ninth-seeded Ethan Green of Denison in the round of 16.
Action at the ITA Central Regional Championships will resume on Sunday morning. Fans can follow the action with updated scores posted to the draw at https://colleges.wearecollegetennis.com/Competitions/ITA/Tournaments/overview/4BE9D35D-6670-42B0-AEBA-0F56F0477E78.
