STANFORD, Calif. – Four Portland men's tennis players advanced to the Round of 32 and three doubles teams won their opening matches in a strong first day for the Pilots at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships hosted at the Taube Family Tennis Complex.

Graduate transfer Kostya Nesterenko highlighted Portland's day by knocking off nationally-ranked and No. 2 seeded William Genesen of Stanford 6-2, 6-4 in the Round of 64. Genesen is ranked No. 54 nationally in the ITA Preseason Singles Rankings. Nesterenko also defeated Louis Chabut of Sacramento State comfortably in the opening round.

Sophomore Issa Yoshida won a pair of three-set matches to advance. He knocked off Hermont Legaspi of Sacramento State in the first round and then held on to beat Manuel Balce of Eastern Washington in the second round.

Sophomore Leo Hibi recorded straight set wins against Elliot Arnarp (Sacramento State) and Coby McCaig (Pacific) to punch his ticket to the Round of 32, while sophomore Sema Pankin also advanced with wins versus Anton De La Puente (Sacramento State) and Phuc Huynh (San Francisco).

Pankin will face the tournament's top seed and No. 75-ranked Yuta Kikuchi of Stanford on Saturday. Yoshida will also take on a ranked opponent in Oregon's Joshua Charlton, while Hibi and Nesterenko will face Jacob Brumm (Cal) and Jesper Nielsen (Oregon), respectively.

"Overall it was a pretty great day," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "I didn't know the great effort by Issa and Leo today could be topped until Kostya took out the No. 2 seed from Stanford in the last match of the evening. He played some phenomenal tennis and really kept his composure to close out a match against a very solid opponent. With our doubles performances in the morning it was a long and successful day of tennis."

Portland was one of only four teams to advance four or more players to the Round of 32 in singles. California has six players remaining in the main draw, while Stanford and Oregon join the Pilots with four players each. Portland joined Stanford, Oregon, California and Washington as the only schools with three or more doubles teams still in the championship draw.

The tournament continues Saturday morning with two more rounds of doubles actions and then singles matches are scheduled for the afternoon. For complete results, log on to the tournament web site.

ITA Northwest Regional Championships
Stanford, Calif. (Taube Family Tennis Complex)
Oct. 25-29, 2019

Singles Draw
128 Issa Yoshida (POR) def. Hermont Legaspi (SAC) 6-4, 5-7, 6-4
128 Leo Hibi (POR) def. Elliot Arnarp (SAC) 6-3, 6-4
128 Kostya Nesterenko (POR) def. Louis Chabut (SAC) 6-2, 6-1
128 Sema Pankin (POR) def. Anton De La Puente (SAC) 6-3, 6-3
128 Tom Hann (POR) def. Jeremy Mueller (EWU) 6-2, 6-2
128 Karlo Divkovic (SMC) def. Carlos Donat (POR) 6-3, 7-6 (6)
128 Can Kaya (CAL) def. Eleftherios Neos (POR) 6-2, 6-2
128 (9) Ty Gentry (UO) def. Nicklas Oberg (POR) 6-4, 6-0
64 Pankin (POR) def. Phuc Huynh (USF) 2-6, 7-5, 6-2
64 Yoshida (POR) def. Manuel Balce (EWU) 6-3, 1-6, 6-2
64 Hibi (POR) def. Coby McCaig (PAC) 6-2, 7-6 (4)
64 Nesterenko (POR) def. #54 (2) William Genesen (STAN) 6-2, 6-4
64 Nitzan Ricklis (USF) def. Hann (POR) 6-4, 6-4
32 Yoshida (POR) vs. #115 (5) Joshua Charlton (UO) Saturday, 1:15 PM
32 Hibi (POR) vs. (9) Jacob Brumm (CAL) Saturday, 1:15 PM
32 Pankin (POR) vs. #75 (1) Yuta Kikuchi (CAL) Saturday, 1:15 PM
32 Nesterenko (POR) vs. Jesper Nielsen (UO) Saturday, 1:15 PM

Consolation Singles
C Donat (POR) vs. Joshua Snowdon-Poole (SAC) Saturday, 4:45 PM
C Neos (POR) vs. Tommy Edwards (PSU) Saturday, 5:15 PM
C Oberg (POR) vs. Michael Vizcarra (SAC) Saturday, 5:45 PM

Doubles Draw
64 Donat/Yoshida (POR) def. Sam Robers/Abdulmajeed Bukhari (PSU) 8-0
64 Hann/Nesterenko (POR) def. Ryan Ali/Nick Cmager (SCU) 8-6
64 Hibi/Oberg (POR) def. Jackson Hawk/Andrew Watterson (SMC) 8-5
64 Daniel Landa/Andrei Volgin (UCD) def. (9) Neos/Pankin (POR) 8-3
32 Donat/Yoshida (POR) vs. #43 (1) David Goulak/Ivan Thamma (UCD) Saturday, 9:15 AM
32 Hann Nesterenko (POR) vs. Nielsen/Riki Oshima (UO) Saturday, 9:15 AM
32 Hibi/Oberg (POR) vs. #47 (3) Alexandre Rotsaert/Sangeet Sridhar (STAN) Saturday, 9:15 AM

Consolation Doubles
C (9) Neos/Pankin (POR) vs. Martin Bats/Mueller (EWU) Saturday, Noon

# – ITA Preseason Ranking
() – Tournament Seed