Bulldogs Travel To Auburn For ITA Southern Regional Tourney

STARKVILLE, Miss. - After finding success in its first two tournaments of the 2012 fall season, the Mississippi State Bulldogs travel to Auburn, Ala., looking to continue their success at the ITA Southern Regional Championships.

Tournament play begins Thursday, with eight Bulldogs participating in singles and four duos competing in the doubles bracket. The one-bracket tournament will have seven rounds of play in singles and six in doubles.

Among the eight singles participants, six will have first-round byes and will play only one match Thursday. Among those are No. 41 and 4th-seeded James Chaudry, No. 47 and 5th-seeded Malte Stropp, Jordan Angus, Pedro Dumont, Zach White and Ethan Wilkinson.

Matches starting at 10 a.m. CT include Angus, who faces South Alabama's Shaynne Vaezzadeh; Chaudry, who battles Troy's Sami Ghorbel; and Wilkinson, who faces Alabama's No. 12 seed Jarryd Botha.

Starting at 10:30 a.m. will be Stropp, who is matched against Ole Miss' Zack Wilder, and White, who faces Auburn's Lukas Ollert.

Dumont's match-up against Tulane's Cedric Rutsaert is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.

Freshmen Romain Bogaerts and Stefan Vinti will have to win two to advance to the second day of play. Vinti grabs the 8:30 a.m. start, facing Troy's Athare Mansingh, while Bogaerts starts at 9:30 a.m. against South Alabama's Cody Hall.

In doubles action, three tandems earned first-round byes and will not play until Friday, Oct. 19. No. 41 and 2nd-seeded Angus/Stropp, along with Chaudry/Vinti and Bogaerts/Dumont will get the free day Thursday.

The duo of White/Wilkinson will face University of Alabama-Birmingham's Rafael Rondino/Tom Puetz Thursday for a chance to advance to the second day of play.

The ITA Southern Regional Championships is a qualifying event for the ITA National Indoor Championships, which will be held Nov. 8-11 in New York, NY.

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