The Texas men’s tennis team played in Fort Worth at the Texas Regional Championships this past weekend and set the tone early. Seven Longhorns advanced out of the singles main draw into the second round of 32 and four doubles teams advanced to the second round of 16. It was the best start to a tournament for the Longhorns this year.

It all started when sophomore Jacoby Lewis pulled an upset over Texas Tech’s No.7 seed Vitor Manzini (6-4,6-3). Other Longhorns to advance in the first round were No. 3 Daniel Whitehead, No. 5 David Holiner, No. 6 Sudanwa Sitaram, No. 21 Ben Chen, No. 23 Lloyd Glasspool and No. 25 Nick Naumann. Top-seeded doubles tandem Chris Camillone and Holiner set the stage for Texas in the doubles draw, winning easily (8-1) and paving the way for three other Texas doubles teams (Chen/Whitehead, Alex Hilliard/Naumann, and Lewis/Sitaram) to advance.

“We had a great day to open this tournament,” head coach Michael Center said Saturday. “We played really hard and it showed on the court as the majority of our players advanced to the next round. Tomorrow will be a big test for us.”

Texas has three of the top six singles players in the tournament and the top two doubles teams in Camillone/Holiner and Chen/Whitehead. The winner of the singles and doubles draw will advance to the USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Championships on Nov. 8-10 in New York.

Texas will continue play at the Friedman Tennis Center in Fort Worth through Oct. 23.