ITA Atlantic Regional Play Begins

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CHARLOTTESVILLE — The Virginia men’s tennis team began play Wednesday at the ITA Atlantic Regional, hosted by the University of Virginia. Due to the weather, only the first round of singles and the first round of doubles took place, as action was split between the Snyder Tennis Center and the Boar’s Head Sports Club.

In singles, two Cavaliers advanced with first round wins. Santiago Villegas (Bogota, Colombia) defeated Dmitry Vizhunov of Temple 6-1, 6-3 and Brian Fang (Hacienda Heights, Calif.) topped Dmitry Chekhlatty of Morgan State 2-6, 6-0, 6-4. They join six Cavaliers who recieved first round byes, No. 1 seed Michael Shabaz (Fairfax, Va.), No. 2 seed Jarmere Jenkins (College Park, Ga.), No. 8 seed Justin Shane (Falls Church, Va.), No. 13 seed Julen Uriguen (Guatemala City, Guatemala), No. 15 seed Philippe Oudshoorn (Apeldoorn, The Netherlands) and No. 16 seed Steven Eelkman Rooda (Amersfoort, The Netherlands), in the round of 64.

The singles round of 64 and round of 32 will be played Thursday.

In doubles, two Cavalier teams won their first round matches. Reese Milner (Los Angeles, Calif.) and Dino Dell’Orto (Hong Kong, China) downed the team of Peter Cognetti and Jeff Kessler of Saint Joesph’s 8-1. The team of Fang and Villegas won their opener, 8-3, over Mwalimu Phiri and Joseph Adewumi of UMBC. They advance to the round of 32, along with two Cavalier teams that received first round byes: No. 1 seed Jenkins and Alex Domijan (Wesley Chapel, Fla.), and No. 3 seed Sanam Singh (Chandigarh, India) and Rooda.

The doubles round of 32 will be played Thursday.

Action continues at 9 a.m. on Thursday at the Snyder Tennis Center.