MADISON, NJ – After day one at the ITA Northeast Regional Championships at Drew University, two University of Rochester men's tennis players are still competing in the main draw of singles, reaching the round of 16.
 
Sophomore Krish Vennam and senior Kai Yuminaga both earned a pair of singles victories on Friday to keep their quest for an ITA regional title alive heading into Saturday's action.
 
Vennam, seeded 9-16 in the bracket, earned two tough wins on the tournaments opening day. In round one, he was a straight set winner over RPI's Jonathan McMillan, but needed a pair of tiebreaks for the victory, winning 7-6, 7-6. In round two, the sophomore won again in a close match, this time needing three sets to emerge over Nick Grosso of Hobart. Vennam won 6-4, 1-6, 10-8.
 
Yuminaga's opening round match was a little more comfortable, as he won 6-3, 6-3 over Anson Anderson from Hamilton. In round two, he also needed three sets to earn the victory, topping Arnav Agostinho of Vassar 6-4, 6-7, 10-4.
 
Rochester first-year Sid Tirupati was the other Yellowjacket in the singles draw, with the rookie dropping his opening round match to Nick Fischer of Hobart in straight sets. Fischer won 7-5, 6-2 to advance.
 
UR also had two doubles teams in action on Friday, with Vennam pairing with Rahul Ravi and Yuminaga teaming with Kavin Shukla.
 
Ravi and Vennam were 8-5 winners in the first round, defeating the team of Byreddy and Elliott of Ramapo. In round two, the Yellowjacket pair was defeated by the draw's top seed, Drover-Mattinen and Zhu from RPI by an 8-0 score.
 
Shukla and Yuminaga were upended by another RPI team in round one, falling to Yohannas and Srinivasan 8-3.
 
On Saturday, Yuminaga kicks off the action starting at 9 am, with Vennam's third round matchup taking place afterwards, at approximately 10:30 am.