The Emory University men's tennis team enjoyed an outstanding opening day of action on Friday at the ITA South Region Championships.  The Championships are being held at the Rome Tennis Center and hosted by Berry College.

Seven of the nine Eagles competing in the Flight A Singles Draw captured their opening two matches and have advanced to Saturday's Round of 16.  Sophomore Antonio Mora opened with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Jarrett Gray of Piedmont, and followed that with a 6-2, 6-2 triumph vs. Thomas Trotta of North Carolina Wesleyan. Mora will square off against Liam Baer, who hails from the University of the South.  Sophomore Andrew Esses got off to an impressive start, topping North Carolina Wesleyan's Ingmar Remmerswaal, 6-0, 6-2, before posting a 6-4, 6-2, outcome over the South's Matt Barrett.  Esses and freshman teammate Mark Sverdlov will square off in Round of 16 bout after Sverdlov played his way to wins over Juan Vallejo of NCWC (6-4, 6-1) and Centre College's Matthew Bulow (6-0, 6-3).  Junior Will Wanner registered a straight-set win against Logan Hull of Covenant College before dispatching Josh Kimball of Milllsaps, 6-0, 6-3.  On deck for Wanner is a match against Jordan Brewer from Sewanee. Senior Hassan Kenawi, who missed last year with an injury, finds himself in the Round of 16 after victories over Nadeem Jaber of NC Wesleyan, 6-3, 6-4, and LaGrange College's Will Thompson, 6-2, 6-0.  Kenawi will tackle Jhonny Acosta from NC Wesleyan on Saturday.  As with classmate Mark Sverdlov, Matt Coupe enjoyed a productive day, bettering PJ Shaw of Rhodes in his opening test before moving on after defeating Walker Towns of Oglethorpe, 6-1, 6-0.  Rounding out the team's Round of 16 participants is senior Rex Serituk, who blanked Hamza Khan from Sewanee before earning a 6-2, 6-1 over Sewanee's Aubrey Davis.  Next up for Serituk is a match-up against Ritwik Chatterjee from Rhodes College.  Junior Alec Rabinowitz captured a favorable decision in his first match against Rory Glatt of Berry College 6-4, 6-1, before falling to NC Wesleyan's Nikita Nevin in the next round.  Sahil Raina came out on the short end to Noah Holsclaw from Sewanee in his opener.  In Flight B, sophomore Pushkar Shinde remains in contention after coming out on the positive end in matches against Berry College's Connor Murphy (6-4, 6-1) and Meade Olson of Sewanee (6-1, 6-1).

Emory distinguished itself in doubles with three of its five teams advancing to the Flight A quarterfinals. The tandem of Rabinowitz and freshman Samuel Dean looked strong, toppling the Sewanee duo of Holsclaw and Jack Metzger, 8-4, and then earning an 8-2 triumph over Guilford College's Joseph Horne and Drake Schreiber. The Emory pair will compete against NC Wesleyan's Aditya Iyer and Roberto Puig on Saturday in a 2:30 pm start.
Kenawi and Sverdlov battled to a pair of successful results, 8-4 against Guilford's Mason Robb and Elijah Gregory, and 8-3 over Sewanee's Matt Barnett and Ryan Wax. Wanner and Mora were the other Eagle doubles team to advance to the quarters with that pair taking on Kenawi and Sverdlov on Saturday.