From Emory University Athletics

The Emory University Men's Tennis Team completed a strong showing during the first day of competition at the 2014 USTA/ ITA South Regional Championships at the Woodruff Physical Education Center in Atlanta, Georgia, with nine singles players and five doubles pairings remaining alive in the main draws.

Emory's Alex Ruderman, the top-seeded player in the singles draw, advanced to the round of 16 with a pair of straight-set wins, defeating Mesa Martorell of Guilford 6-0, 6-0 and Jacob Weinacker of Birmingham-Southern 6-0, 6-1.  On the other side of the draw, second-seeded Eric Halpern of Emory claimed a 6-2, 6-3 win over Michael O'Brien of Covenant in the first round and a 6-2, 6-2 triumph over Nicolas Quevedo of Averett to reach the round of 16.

Emory's other seeded player in the draw, fourth-seeded Rafe Mosetick, earned a pair of wins as well to keep alive in the draw.  Other Eagles who picked two singles victories in the main draw on Friday to reach the round of 16 included Lucas Lund, Scott Rubinstein, Roberto Bazzarella, Ian Wagner, Josh Goodman and Aman Manji.

The remaining seven players alive in the draw include third-seeded Avery Schober of Sewanee, fifth-seeded Robert Kjellberg of North Carolina Wesleyan, sixth-seeded Sebastian Sikh of North Carolina Wesleyan, eighth-seeded Elliot Blatt of Rhodes, Eric Roddy of Sewanee, Connor Winkler of Sewanee, and Fabio Pereira of North Carolina Wesleyan.

Three other Emory players each won both their matches on Friday in the singles 'B' tournament, with March Zheng, Zach Surmacz and David Omsky all reaching the quarterfinals of the draw.

Emory's top-seeded doubles pairing of Ruderman and Wagner reached the quarterfinals with a pair of wins on Friday, defeating Pullen and Belcher of Berry 8-0 in the first round and Owen and Shropshire-Boykin of Sewanee 8-3 in the second round.  The Eagles' third-seeded pair of Halpern and Rubinstein advanced with a pair of wins, claiming an 8-2 victory over Patton and Ardilla of Rhodes in the first round and an 8-3 win over Flores and Clement of Methodist in the round of 16.

Also reaching the doubles quarterfinals from Emory with a pair of wins on Friday were the unseeded duos of Andrew Lo and Rocco English, Omsky and Eric Brinzenskiy and Zheng and Surmacz.  They will be joined by three other non-Emory pairings – second-seeded Kjellberg and Sikh of North Carolina Wesleyan, fourth-seeded Schober and Roddy of Sewanee, and unseeded Winker and Jackson of Sewanee.