Four BYU men's tennis players advance at ITA Regionals

LAS VEGAS -- Four BYU men's tennis players advanced after day one of competition at the ITA Regional Championships Presented by Oracle on Wednesday at the Darling Tennis Center. 

Sophomores Matthew Pearce and JD Malan advanced to the round of 32 in singles while teammates Aidan Carrazedo and Sam Tullis qualified for the second round in the doubles draw. 

Pearce upset No. 9 seed Jack Swindells from Utah State in the first round, 6-1, 6-4, and defeated MSU’s Kellen Bates in the second round, 6-3, 6-3. Malan ousted Sandro Lena (UNR) 6-4, 6-3 followed by a three-set victory over Utah's Slava Shainyan 4-6, 7-6, 6-3. Pearce will face New Mexico's Sean Bakilini while Malan will play Mauri Benetiz from New Mexico State in the next round.

Carrazedo and Tullis advanced to the second round in doubles after a victory over USU’s Andrew Nakajima and Sammy Serrano 8-6. In the next round, they will team up against Air Force's David Mottice and Isaac Perez.

Also in the singles draw, Derek Vincent defeated NAU’s Harun Ajanovic 6-2, 6-1 before losing to No. 3 seed UNLV’s Jacob Amilon 6-4, 6-2 in the round of 64. Carrazedo also advanced to the round of 64 after ousting Idaho State's Francis Filipovich 6-7, 7-6, 7-5, but then fell to Santiago Sierra (Utah) 5-7, 6-1, 7-6.

Three other Cougars dropped close three-set matches in the first round of singles. Garret Vincent fell to New Mexico State's Sergia Espias 6-7, 6-3, 6-1, while Jacob Sullivan lost to Alexi Turc (UNR) 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. Tullis fell to Idaho's Mark Kovacs 4-6, 6-3, 7-6.

In the doubles draw, Pearce and Sullivan fell to Montana's Peter Mimnagh-Fleming and Victor Casadevall 8-6 in the first round. Cousins Derek and Garret Vincent also dropped their first round match to UNLV’s Adam Gage-Brown and Evaldo Neto 8-4.

The tournament continues through Saturday with doubles beginning at 9 a.m. Thursday and singles beginning at 10:30 a.m. Results can be followed here.