MALIBU, Calif. – The UCLA men’s tennis team is continuing fall tournament play at Pepperdine’s Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center, where seven Bruins are set to compete in ITA Southwest Regional Championships action.
Gianluca Ballotta, Spencer Johnson, Timothy Li, Jorge Plans Gonzalez, Aadarsh Tripathi, Emon van Loben Sels and Azuma Visaya make up UCLA’s contingent, with singles and doubles both set to begin Thursday.
Sixteen regional events are being held across the country ahead of the Nov. 1-5 ITA National Fall Championships at Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego. Each of the Division I singles and doubles finalists at the regional sites will earn spots in the national draws. Regional tournament’s began Sept. 28 and continue through Oct. 24.
Each Bruin doubles team plays at 9 a.m. PT Thursday. Van Loben Sels/Visaya clashes with Neo Niedner and Lambert Ruland of San Diego, Johnson/Li faces off with Aaron Eliscu and Wian Roothman of Cal Poly and Ballotta/Plans Gonzalez takes the court against Brandon Park and Noah Zamora of UC Irvine.
Johnson and No. 17 seed Tripathi get UCLA started in singles play with their 10:30 a.m. matches. Johnson meets 17-seed Inaki Cabrera-Bello of Arizona, while Tripathi takes on Raz Haviv of Cal Poly. Visaya, another No. 17 seed, is tasked with taking down Tristan Taylor of UC San Diego at 12:30 p.m. No. 12 Plans Gonzalez, No. 17 Ballotta and No. 17 van Loben Sels earned first-round byes. Ballotta and van Loben Sels will play their second-round contests at 1:30 p.m., while Plans Gonzalez is scheduled to get underway at 3 p.m.
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