FREDERICKSBURG, Va. - The Haverford College men's tennis team competed on the first day of the ITA Southeast Regional at the University of Mary Washington on Friday, battling rain delays for an extremely impressive performance to open the stint in Northern Virginia. Haverford won each of its first-round singles matches, with Andreas Wingert advancing to the Round of 16 in championship singles play while Justin Minerva and Stefan Johnson will advance to the round of 16 in championship doubles.
Singles Play
Andreas Wingert, fresh off a Centennial Conference Rookie of the Year finish a season ago, prevailed over Mary Washington's Peter Leese (3-6, 7-5, 10-8) in Round of 64 play, and then grabbed a 6-3, 6-2 sweep over Jhayden Papaps of Salisbury. Wingert, the fifth-seeded player in the bracket, advances into the Round of 16 where he will face off with Pranav Gadiraju of Johns Hopkins on Saturday (1 p.m.) First-year Aiden Kim also made a splash in Championship singles action, taking his Round of 64 contest by a final of 6-4, 2-6, 10-4, prevailing in a superbreaker over Philip Rehwinkel of rival Swarthmore. Kim was upended by Thomas Yu of Johns Hopkins in the round of 32 (6-1, 6-0).
Elsewhere in the championship flights, Adam Chow was a 6-2, 6-2, winner over Allan Van Nostrand of Catholic in the Round of 64 before falling to Rishi Charan Shankar of host Mary Washington (6-3, 6-1) in the Round of 32. Stefan Johnson was a 6-4, 7-5 winner over Sebastien Lhuiller in his Round of 32 matchup before falling to Hanyu Liu of Johns Hopkins in second-round play by a 6-4, 7-5 final. Danny Loder also faced a pair of familiar foes with a 7-5, 4-6, 10-2 victory over Rushil Patel of Swarthmore. In the Round of 32, Loder dropped his match to Karl Hoegstedt of Washington College, 7-5, 6-0.
In B1 singles competition, James McKenzie prevailed in a pro-set, taking the victory over Martinho Goncalves of Averett in a tiebreak 9-8 (7-1). McKenzie advances to a quarterfinal matchup with Ryan Meyer of Mary Washington at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. In B3 singles, Justin Minerva took down Jonas Jutz of Virginia Wesleyan by an 8-4 final to advance to face Aaradith Ravichandran of Washington College in a quarterfinal at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. Kirin Eicher assured that Haverford would finish perfect in its first round singles play with an 8-3 triumph over Camden Perry of Virginia Wesleyan. His next opponent is slated to be Seb Dijkema of Marymount on Saturday in a quarterfinal showdown (3:30 p.m.)
Doubles Play
Minerva and Stefan Johnson, the ninth seeded doubles pairing in the tournament, earned a first-round bye into the Round of 32 doubles, and promptly delivered an 8-5 victory over Alex Sertis and Ashton Legum of Christopher Newport to book a date in the Round of 16 on Saturday (8:45 a.m.) against an opponent to be determined.
The pairing of Jason Edmonds and Max Beckwith prevailed in a tiebreak over Jacob Pfab and Brock Ladehoff of Mary Washington 8-7(7-4) in the Round of 64, setting up a Round of 32 showdown against Rohan Reddy and Daniel Ardila of Johns Hopkins. Later in the afternoon, the Blue Jays pairing took an 8-4 win to advance to the Round of 16.
The doubles pairing of Abhinav Nallapareddy and Kim was defeated in its first round matchup with Akshay Joshi and Arjan Bedi of Carnegie Mellon, falling by an 8-6 final. Chow and McKenzie were upended by Artis Hart and Andrew Cooper of Mary Washington by an 8-5 tally.
ITA Southeast Regional action will continue tomorrow, with matches hitting the courts beginning bright and early. Haverford's doubles action will begin things at 8:45 a.m.