MALIBU, Calif. - The UC Irvine men's tennis team played two rounds of singles and one round of doubles to kick off the ITA Southwest Regional Championship Thursday at Pepperdine.
 
In the singles main draw, graduate transfer Enrique Luque Rico and sophomore Noah Zamora both received a bye before winning their respective second-round matches to advance to Friday's Round of 32. Luque Rico dispatched Karl Collins of Hawai'i, 6-3, 6-3, while Zamora took down San Diego State's Eugenio Gonzalez, 6-4, 6-4.
 
Sophomore Rithvik Krishna won his first match in straight sets, defeating UC San Diego's Pelayo Rodriguez, 6-3, 6-1. He then went toe-to-toe with 44th-ranked Bradley Frye of USC but fell just short with a 7-5, 7-6 (5) loss in the Round of 64.
 
Junior Brandon Park, junior Thomas Smart and sophomore Lawee Sherif also went 1-1 on the day. Park cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Guillaume Tattevin of Hawai'i, before falling to No. 14 Daniel De Jonge of host Pepperdine. Smart picked up a 6-3, 6-3 win against Mattia Ghedin (Grand Canyon) but dropped a 6-1, 6-1 decision to No. 113 Wotjek Marek (USC). Sherif outlasted UCSD's Sanjith Devineni in a three-set battle, 2-6, 6-1, 6-3, then fell to the Waves' Eric Hadigian, 7-5, 6-4.
 
UC Irvine had a pair of doubles teams move on to tomorrow's Round of 32. Luque Rico and Zamora made quick work of Jett Cole/Charles Qian of UCSD, 8-2, in the opening round. Sah and Smart also got out to a hot start, taking down Grand Canyon's Mattia Ghedin/David Wekesa, 8-6.
 
The 'Eaters will resume ITA Southwest Regional action tomorrow with doubles matches starting at 9 a.m.