IRVINE, Calif. - The UC Irvine men's tennis team is headed to Malibu for the 2022 ITA Southwest Regional Championships, Oct. 20-24.
The tournament, which will feature 16 ranked singles players, brings the region's top competition together at Raphs-Straus Tennis Center. The singles and doubles champions, along with the singles runner-up, will qualify for the ITA Fall National Championships in San Diego, Nov. 2-6.
All eight Anteaters are set to compete in both singles and doubles. Leading the way for UCI is sophomore
Noah Zamora, who owns a 5-1 singles record through two fall tournaments. He went 2-1 at the ITA All-American Championships (Oct. 1-2) where he advanced to the prequalifying singles Round of 64. Zamora then went 3-0 at the San Diego Veterans Tennis Classic (Oct. 7-9).
Graduate transfer
Enrique Luque Rico, junior
Brandon Park and senior
Matthew Sah were also in action two weeks ago in San Diego, while senior
Ali Amiri went 1-1 at the ITA All-American Championships. Junior
Thomas Smart, sophomore
Lawee Sherif and sophomore
Rithvik Krishna will make their season debuts this weekend.
Last year at the ITA Southwest Regional, Sah and Smart advanced to the doubles Round of 16. Smart and Zamora also won their first-round singles matches, while Sah made it to the consolation Round of 32.