The Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team opened play at the 2025 ITA Fall Central Region Championships on Friday in Kalamazoo, Michigan, with two doubles teams and all six singles players remaining alive in the main draws after one day of competition.

Tournament Information

• All three CWRU doubles teams were seeded entering the tournament and received a first-round bye. Sophomores Leon Chen and Jon Totorica were the second-seeded duo in the draw, while seniors Anmay Devaraj and Rohan Bhat were seeded seventh, and graduate student Bryce Ware and junior Trey Lambright were seeded ninth.

• It was a similar story for the Spartans in the singles draw, where all six of the CWRU competitors were seeded and received a bye through the round of 128. Senior Matthew Plunkett was seeded eighth overall, while junior George Kosseifi and Santiago Salazar Garza were each seeded ninth, and Devaraj, Totorica, and senior JT Bilski were each seeded 17th.

• Friday's action consisted of the first two rounds of both the singles and doubles draws. The event will continue on Saturday with the round of 16 and quarterfinals of the doubles draw, as well as the round of 32 and round of 16 of the singles draw. On Sunday, the doubles semifinals and championship match will be held, while singles on Sunday will feature the quarterfinals and semifinals, with the draw championship to be played on Monday.

• The finalists from both the singles and doubles draw will earn an automatic berth into the ITA Cup from October 16-19 in Rome, Georgia.

Doubles Draw

• Totorica and Chen claimed an 8-4 win over Alec Maynard and Cooper Nugent of Hope and will take on ninth-seeded Jay Dixit and Stylianos Papamichael of Kenyon in the round of 16 on Saturday. The winning team will advance to the quarterfinals to face either fifth-seeded Finley Buelte and Will Cramer of DePauw or ninth-seeded Markus Ekstrand and Alexander Ekstrand of Chicago.

• Ware and Lambright picked up an 8-2 win over Tyler Wood and Dylan Cantanese of Ohio Northern in the round of 32. Next up for the duo will be a round of 16 meeting with top-seeded Ethan Green and Kael Shah of Denison on Saturday, with the winning team advancing to face either sixth-seeded Jeremy Sieben and Ethan Wu of WashU or Rafael Rin and Augusto Ghidini of Wabash, also on Saturday.

• Devaraj and Bhat were the lone Spartan pairing to suffer a setback on Friday, falling to Adrian's Luca Coutinho and Michael Mascarin in a nailbiter, 8-7 (6). The two went on to play in the doubles consolation draw, besting Enzo Lopes and Bennett Dickerson of Wooster 8-1, and will play ninth-seeded Jacob Patterson and Arya Ganapathy Kallambella of Denison at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday.

Singles Draw

• Plunkett was flawless against Colton Hulme of Greenville, winning in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0. He will face 17th-seeded Kristian Janci of Allegheny on Saturday at 10:30 a.m., with the winner advancing to the round of 16 to take on either ninth-seeded Christian Liew of Chicago or 17th-seeded Rodrigo Alipio of Calvin. 

• Devaraj claimed a 6-2, 6-0 win over Berado Aguilar of Lake Forest in the round of 64, earning a matchup against ninth-seeded Finley Buelte of DePauw on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. in the round of 32. The winner will advance to the round of 16 against either top-seeded Kael Shah of Denison or 17th-seeded Case Fagan of WashU at 1:30 p.m.

• Also in the round of 64, Kosseifi defeated Kenyon's Juozas Cioladis 6-0, 6-3 to set up a meeting against Denison's Anthony Payiavlas, seeded 17th, at 10:30 AM on Saturday. Awaiting the winner of that match in the round of 16 will be either fourth-seeded Eric Kuo of WashU or 17th-seeded Matthew Liew of Chicago.

• Totorica picked up a straight-set win in the round of 64 as well, besting Andres Valverde of North Central 6-0, 6-2. He will face ninth-seeded Shrikeshav Murugesan of Chicago in the round of 32, with the winner moving on to take on either seventh-seeded Jacob Patterson of Denison or 17th-seeded Colin Fox of WashU.

• Bilski was triumphant over Saman Rezaeyan of Augustana 6-1, 6-3 and will take on ninth-seeded Colin Scruggs of WashU next. 

• Salazar Garza capped off the Spartans' singles performances with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Rose-Hulman's Ervin Perkowski. He will face DePauw's Paul Castleman in the round of 32, with the winner moving on to the round of 16 against either second-seeded Ethan Green of Denison or 17th-seeded Jeremy Sieben of WashU.

Spartan Notes

• CWRU combined to go 3-1 in doubles play and 6-0 in singles matches during the first day of the tournament.

• Spartan players are now 92-38 (.708) in singles play and 38-18 (.679) in doubles matches this fall.

• CWRU is one of just two teams with all six singles players still alive in the draw in the round of 32, along with Denison. In doubles action, the Spartans are one of just five schools with multiple doubles teams still alive in the round of 16, along with Denison, WashU, Chicago, and Kenyon.

Up Next

The Spartans will continue play at the ITA Central Region Championship on Saturday. In addition, CWRU will be sending a contingent of athletes to Granville, Ohio, for the Big Red Invitational on Saturday.