MIDDLEBURY, Vt.—Sophomore
Maxim Zlobinsky (Greenvale, N.Y.) and first-year
Lucas Velasco (Miami Beach, Fla.) earned a pair of victories in the main singles draw and junior
Sebastian Mendoza (Weston, Fla.) and first-year
Andre Ziskind (Hilton Head Island, S.C.) advanced to the third round in doubles to highlight the opening day of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) New England Championships on Friday at Middlebury College.
Zlobinsky cruised past Fillippo Nocchi of Emerson 6-2, 6-0 and won a pair of tiebreakers to get past Eren Cheung of Tufts 7-6 (10-8), 7-6 (7-4) in the second round, while Velasco downed Thomas Ameral of UMass Boston 6-2, 6-0 in round one before rallying to upset fifth-seeded Jackson Codd of Bowdoin 1-6, 6-2, 10-6 in the Round of 32. Sophomore
Sourish Gadhi (Morganville, N.J.) also was a 6-2, 6-0 first round winner over Santiago Diaz of Gordon before dropping a 2-6, 7-5, 10-4 decision to eighth-seeded Noah Lewis of Middlebury in the second round.
Mendoza also rolled to a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Aris Kirkorian of Clark in the opening round but was defeated by Stavros Mastrogamvrakis of Tufts, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5 in round two.
Gadhi and sophomore
Rishi Batlanki (Monroe Township, N.J.) and Velasco and first-year
Saje Menon (Mineola, N.Y.) won opening round matches to join the Beavers' seeded pairings of Mendoza and Ziskind and Zlobinsky and sophomore
Max Lidman (Stockholm, Sweden) in the second round of the doubles draw. Mendoza and Ziskind was the only duo to advance to the third round though, posting an 8-6 victory over Brett Keeling and Tommy Jani of Wesleyan.
Gadhi and Batlanki suffered an 8-7 (7-4) loss to Pierce Garbett and Aidan Wang-Fan of Brandeis, Zlobinsky and Lidman fell 8-6 to Pratt Yerger and Matej Djokic of Tufts and Velasco and Menon suffered an 8-3 loss to sixth-seeded Phillippe Kosyagin and Tair Sarmanov of Bates.
Both Ziskind and Lidman advanced to the third round of the B singles draw with a pair of easy wins. Ziskand beat Benjamin Demetriades of Bowdoin 8-4 in the first round and David Mirza of Tufts 8-2 in the second, while Lidman downed Ziad Tabbara of Clark 8-1 and Nico Ozer of Bates 8-0.
The Beavers are set to play their third round singles matches beginning at 9 a.m. on Saturday with doubles to follow at 11 a.m.
