TULSA, OKLA. -- Both Cougars competing during the Qualifying Rounds of the ITA All-American Championships Monday recorded wins for BYU.
Competing in his first match during fall play this year, No. 91 Georgy Batrakov topped Louisiana-Lafayette's Carlin Murray, 7-5, 6-1, to earn a spot in the second round of the qualifying rounds. Senior Batrakov will compete Tuesday against Marc Powers of Yale.
No. 117 Spencer Smith, who won the Utah Fall Classic singles title in September, moved past Daniel Hoffman of Yale, 6-1, 6-4, to earn his fifth straight win of fall play. Junior Smith will see second round action on Tuesday against Stanford's Denis Lin.
The last 16 spots in singles and eight spots in doubles will be on the line when qualifying matches conclude on Wednesday, Oct. 5. On Thursday, Oct. 6, main draw play gets underway as 64 singles players and 32 doubles teams vie for the titles.
No. 53 Patrick Kawka, the 2011 Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year, will compete in the main draw for the Cougars.
In doubles, Smith and freshman Francis Sargeant received a bye for their first round match of the qualifying rounds. The duo faces Gonzales Austin and Charlie Jones of Vanderbilt in the second round Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. Smith and Sargeant reached the doubles final during the Utah Fall Classic before falling to teammate freshman Keaton Cullimore and high school senior John Pearce, BYU men's tennis coach Brad Pearce's son.
Competing in the bottom half of the doubles bracket, Batrakov, a member of the 2011 All-MWC Doubles Team, and sophomore Kawka will take on Jarryd Chaplin and Edward Jones of Tennessee Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. in the First Round. The winning pair will advance to challenge No. 10 Alberto Bautista and Junio Ore of Texas A&M Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.