Huskies Head to USTA/ITA NW Regional Championships

SEATTLE, Wash. – The University of Washington Men’s Tennis team will head to Stanford this weekend to play in the USTA/ITA Northwest Regional Championship hosted by the Cardinal. Action gets underway Friday morning and the Huskies will have eight competing in open singles along with four doubles pairs.

Three of the Huskies eight singles players will enter the tournament seeded in the 128-man bracket led by senior Emmett Egger who earned a first round bye with his no. 5 seed. Freshman Mitch Stewart and Gal Hakak are also seeded and will be joined in singles action by Jeff Hawke, Rishabh Raman, Dragos Puscalau, Wendell Watanabe and Jake Douglas.

In doubles play, the nationally ranked pair of Egger and Hawke earned the No. 2 seed and will have a bye during the first round of 64 team field. Mitch Stewart and Wendell Watanabe will pair up along with Jake Douglas/Viktor Farkas and Gal Hakak/ Rishabh Raman with doubles action starting at 8:30 a.m. Friday morning.

Other teams joining UW in ITA Northwest Region are: California, Eastern Washington, Fresno State, Gonzaga, Oregon, Pacific, Portland, Portland State, Sacramento State, Saint Mary’s, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Stanford and UC Davis.

Last year, Egger and Hawke made it to the final match in doubles play before falling to California, 8-5. Egger also advanced to the singles quarterfinals along with Max Manthou and Jeff Hawke.

Friday’s action begins at 8:30 a.m. with the first two rounds of singles and the opening slate of doubles. The competition continues Saturday with two more rounds on both sides with the quarterfinals set for Sunday. Semifinals for singles and doubles are contested Monday, before the championship matches on Tuesday. The tournament serves as a qualifier for the ITA Indoor Nationals, held in November.

UW’S Schedule
Open Singles – Round of 128
Jeff Hawke vs. James Wade (UC Davis) – Friday, 10 a.m.
Rishabh Raman vs. Brent Wheeler (Portland) – Friday, 12:30 p.m.
Mitch Stewart (17) vs. Eduardo Martinez (Eastern Washington) – Friday, 1:30 p.m.
Wendell Watanabe vs. Stefan Farrar (Eastern Washington) – Friday, 2 p.m.
Gal Hakak (17) vs. James Martinez (Saint Mary’s) – Friday 2:30 p.m.
Jake Douglas vs. Alex Hamilton (Pacific) – Friday, 3 p.m.

Round of 64
No. 5 Emmett Egger vs .TBA – Friday, 4 p.m.
Dragos Puscalau vs. TBA – Friday, 5:30 p.m.

Open Doubles – Round of 64
Mitch Stewart/Wendell Watanabe vs. Alex Giannini/Ashwin Sharma (Pacifc) – Friday, 8:30 a.m.
Jake Douglas/Viktor Farkas vs. Will Cochrane/Ethan Lopez (Portland State) – Friday, 8:30 a.m.
Gal Hakak/Rishabh Raman vs. 9-seed Jayson Amos/Kevin Farin (Oregon) – Friday, 9:15 a.m.

Open Doubles – Round of 32
2-seed Emmett Egger/Jeff Hawke vs. TBA – Saturday, 9 a.m.