NORFOLK, Va. — Sophomore Petar Belosevic earned a three-set victory for the Longwood men's tennis team in the opening round of the main singles draw at the 2024 ITA Atlantic Regional Championship on Friday at Old Dominion's Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center.
Belosevic, who won his way into the 64-player field with a pair of victories in the qualifying singles draw Thursday, outlasted Adhvyte Sharma of Georgetown to advance to the round of 32. He won the opening set, 6-2, before dropping the middle set, 3-6. Belosevic bounced back to win, 6-2, in the third. He next faces Chase Robinson of Liberty Saturday at 9 a.m.
The two finalists in the main singles draw earn berths to the NCAA Individual Championships, which will be held in the fall season for the first time on Nov.19-24 in Waco, Texas.
Also in the main singles draw, graduate student Mauricio Gonzalez Paiva fell to Oliver Hague of William & Mary in three sets with a second-set tiebreaker. Gonzalez Paiva won the first set, 7-5, but lost the next two, 6-7 (2), and 2-6.
Junior Timéo Puech lost, 6-1, 6-4, to ODU's Aryan Saleh, in his main singles draw bout.
Freshman Marko Mrdak won his consolation draw match with Francisco Sinopoli of James Madison, 6-7 (1), 7-5, 10-3.
Doubles play began Friday with Puech and Mrdak falling to Virginia's Keegan Rice and Stiles Brockett, 8-5 and Belosevic and Gonzalez Paiva losing to Mikeal Carpenter and Niles Rachal of Morgan State.
