BRUNSWICK, Maine— Graduate student Jonah Wilson (Gilbert, Ariz.) won his first two matches in the championship singles draw on Friday to lead the Babson College men's tennis team on the opening day of competition at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) New England Championships at Bowdoin College.
 
Seeded fourth in the top singles bracket, Wilson defeated Pierce Rutledge of Trinity in the first round, 6-1, 6-2, and knocked off Arjun Premkumar of Connecticut College, 6-4, 6-3, in the round of 32. Wilson will face Lachie MacIntosh of Tufts in the round of 16 on Saturday.
 
First-year Kerem Ozlale (Istanbul, Turkey) captured his first-round match in the championship draw, defeating Ben Mitchell of Wesleyan, 6-2, 6-1. Ozlale then got knocked out with a 6-3, 6-4 setback to Ethan Bradley of Bowdoin in the round of 32. First-years Caymus Choi (Hong Kong, China) and Logan Back (Busan, South Korea) suffered first-round losses in straight sets in the top singles bracket.
 
Senior Jose Gonzalez (Asheville, N.C.) and graduate student Andrew Watson (Charlottesville, Va.) advanced to the round of 16 in the B singles bracket. Gonzalez defeated Walker Mulligan of Connecticut College in the first round, 8-3, and knocked off Jackson Codd of Bowdoin in the round of 32, 8-7 (7-3), while Watson was an 8-3 winner over Will Marshall of Bates and an 8-6 winner of Andrew Nelson of Trinity. Gonzalez will face Corey Marley of Tufts in the round of 16 on Saturday and Watson will take on Thehan Wijemanne Middlebury.
 
Two other Beavers won first-round matches in the B bracket but were eliminated in the round of 32. First-year Eshan Mukherjee (Basel, Switzerland) defeated Rico Buoro of Trinity, 8-6, before a setback to Peter Wang of Amherst, 8-5, and first-year Mattias Harrell (Oslo, Norway) won his opener over Bud Fischer of Trinity, 8-3, before a loss to Sacha Maes of Tufts, 8-3. Sophomore Martin Mejia (Cali, Colombia) was a first-round victim to Max Litton of Wesleyan, 8-4.
 
Babson's tandem of Mejia and Back moved past the first round in the double bracket after their Bates opponents suffered an injury default, but the Beaver duo was bounced by Neel Epstein and Noah Lewis of Middlebury, 8-7 (7-4). Wilson and Choi received a first-round bye in doubles but lost to Eli Criss and Alex Park of Bates in the second round, 8-4. The teams of Gonzalez-Mukherjee and Watson-Ozlale both suffered first-round losses.

The tournament continues on Saturday beginning at 9 a.m.