ROME, Ga. – The Portland doubles team of Nikola Keremedchiev and Stefan Skobelev won their opening round match Thursday at the 2024 ITA Conference Masters Championships, hosted at the Rome Tennis Center.

Keremedchiev and Skobelev defeated Martin Garcia-Ripoll Ore and Francisco Lamas of East Tennessee State by a 6-4, 2-6, 10-8 margin in a third set super tiebreaker. The tandem advances to the Round of 16 to face the tournament's No. 2 seeded team of Peter Nad and Sebastian Dominko from Notre Dame on Friday at 9:30 a.m. (PT). The Notre Dame duo is ranked No. 46 in the latest ITA Doubles Rankings.

"We got into Atlanta late last night and had a really good practice this morning, but still struggled to get our feet under us on short notice," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "We didn't play our best today, but it was good to get through nonetheless. I think the guys know how much better we need to play to keep advancing in this tournament. We talked about some things we can do better and I'm very certain we'll play better tomorrow, but it's always nice to get a win when not playing our best."

The ITA Conference Masters Championships has a field featuring one singles player and one doubles team from each of the 27 NCAA Division I conferences in men's tennis. The 32-draw field will send three doubles teams to the newly formatted 2024 NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships hosted Nov. 19-24, 2024 in Waco, Texas. The doubles champion, runner up and third place team all will earn qualification.

The ITA Conference Masters Championships is one of four pathways for individuals and doubles teams to earn spots in the championship field, which has shifted away from the Spring season. The others are the ITA All-American Championships, ITA Regionals and ITA Sectionals.

ITA Conference Masters Championships
Rome, Ga. (Rome Tennis Center)
Nov. 7-10, 2024

Doubles
32 Nikola Keremedchiev/Stefan Skobelev (POR) def. Martin Garcia-Ripoll Ore/Francisco Lamas (ETSU) 6-4, 2-6, 10-8
16 Keremedchiev/Skobelev (POR) vs. #46 Peter Nad/Sebastian Dominko (ND) Friday, 9:30 AM
 
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