ITA SOUTHWEST REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Dates: Oct. 19-23, 2017 (Thursday-Monday)
Location: Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center & Crest Tennis Courts - Malibu, Calif.

Tournament Central // Tournament Draws

THIS WEEK
The UC Irvine men's tennis team closes out the fall season this week when it heads to Malibu for the ITA Southwest Regional Championships, Oct. 19-23, at both the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center and the Crest Tennis Courts.
 
The tournament gets underway at 9 a.m. on Thursday, with two rounds of doubles and two rounds of singles. Vatsal Bajpai, Antoine Barthe, Mason Hansen, Sebastian Heim, Sasha Krasnov, Luis Lopez, Bruce Man-Son-Hing and Luca Marquard will represent the Anteaters in both singles and doubles.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Four 'Eaters participated in the Aztec Fall Invitational at San Diego State, Oct. 6-8. Sasha Krasnov advanced to the Flight 2 singles quarterfinals, while Bruce Man-Son-Hing was the runner-up in the back draw. Krasnov also teamed up with Mason Hansen to make an appearance in the Flight 2 doubles consolation final.
 
One week earlier, Sebastian Heim, Luca Marquard and Luis Lopez traveled to Tulsa, Okla., for the ITA All-American Championships (Sept. 30-Oct. 3). Both Lopez and Marquard won their first two matches to reach the pre-qualifying singles Round of 64. Heim, who was in the qualifying draw, also won his opening round match but couldn't get past 75th-ranked Logan Staggs of UCLA in the Round of 64.
 
NEWS AND NOTES
This is UCI's third and final tournament of the fall season.
 
Senior Sebastian Heim came in at No. 114 in the ITA Preseason Rankings. Last year, he was ranked as high as No. 95 during the dual-match campaign.
 
Heim is a three-time first-team All-Big West singles selection, while he also earned first-team honors in doubles as a junior.
 
Junior Luis Lopez garnered first-team All-Big West accolades in doubles and finished the 2016-17 campaign with a team-high 15 singles victories.
 
Lopez secured an automatic entry into the 2017 ITA National Summer Championships after winning three of the six Southern California tournaments on the Summer Circuit.
 
Senior Luca Marquard received a second-team All-Big West nod in both singles and doubles last year.
 
Junior transfer Sasha Krasnov (Odessa, Ukraine) won his first match as an Anteater at the Aztec Fall Invitational as he defeated Liberty's Alex Poynter, 7-5, 6-3. Krasnov was a two-time conference champion in singles and doubles at Cerritos College.
 
Dating back to the 2016-17 season, sophomore Bruce Man-Son-Hing and junior Vatsal Bajpai have won seven of their last eight doubles matches. Their only loss was a walkover due to an injury at the Aztec Invitational. The two will not be playing together at the ITA Regionals as Man-Son-Hing is teaming up with Marquard and Bajpai with Krasnov.
 
Freshman Antoine Barthe (Rueil-Malmaison, France) will be making his collegiate debut this week.
 
UP NEXT
UC Irvine will have a few months to prepare for the 2018 dual-match campaign with its season-opener set for Friday, Jan. 19, at San Diego.