October 21, 2004

BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Virginia Tech had a tough first day in the qualifying singles round of the Wilson/Intercollegiate Tennis Association Northeast Men's Regional Championships. The event runs through Oct. 26 and is being held at the Burleson/Burrows Tennis Center on the Virginia Tech campus. The singles finalists and doubles champion from this event will earn spots in the November 4-7 ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships at the University of Michigan.

In the opening round of qualifying singles, Akil Burgess (So., St. Michael, Barbados) defeated Joe Vellanikaran (Yale), 7-6 (5), 6-2 but lost in the qualifying match 7-6 (4), 6-3 versus Nikhil Murali (St. Bonaventure). Reaves Robinette (So., Chattanooga, Tenn.) lost 6-3, 6-2 to Matt Fawcett (Rutgers) while Ignaci Roca (Fr., San Jose, Costa Rica) fell 6-3, 6-1 against Yhonny Murray (Temple).

In addition to host Virginia Tech, the event features the top players from Division I schools including: Binghamton, Boston College, Brown, Bucknell, Buffalo, Colgate, Columbia Cornell, Dartmouth, Farleigh Dickinson, Georgetown, George Washington, Harvard, Hofstra, Lafayette, Lehigh, Manahattan, Maryland-Baltimore County, Navy, Niagara, Penn, Penn State, Princeton, Quinnipiac, Robert Morris, Rutgers, St. Bonaventure, St. John's, St. Joseph's, Stony Brook, Temple, Wagner and Yale. This week's top seeds are: Jonathan Chu (Harvard) and Malcolm Scatliffe (Penn State) in singles and Nic Bruner/Josh Raff (Cornell). Virginia Tech's Stephane Rod (Sr., Lausanne, Switzerland) is seeded tenth along with Arvid Puranen (So., Lulea, Sweden) who is the No. 16 seed. Angel Diankov (Sr., Yonkers, N.Y.) is among the 17-32 seeds.

Rod, Puranen and Diankov all received first round byes and will not see their first singles action until Saturday. In opening round singles matches, Adel Abbas (Sr., Cairo, Egypt) takes on Saurabh Kohli (Brown) Friday at 9 a.m. while Brent Wilkins (Jr., Richmond, Va.) battles Daniel Wynne (Farleigh Dickinson) in a 2 p.m. match.

In doubles, Puranen/Rod, winners of last weekend's South Carolina Invitational, are seeded second while Diankov/Brent Wilkins (Jr., Richmond, Va.) are the No. 6 seeds and both received first round byes. Burgess/Roco will play Friday at 3 p.m. against Matthew Fawcett/Jonathan Wanono (Rutgers).

Seventeen ITA Regional Championships for NCAA Division I men and women are taking place over the last two weekends of October at campuses throughout the country.