No. 1 seed Navarro, four other Cavaliers advance to begin NCAA singles play

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Two members of the Virginia women’s tennis team and three players from the National Champion UVA men’s team advanced to the second round of singles at the NCAA Individuals Championships, being held this week at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex in Champaign, Illinois.

Sophomore Emma Navarro, the No. 1 seed in the singles championship, prevailed in her opening-round match Monday, along with junior Natasha Subhash, while a trio of Cavalier sophomores — Chris Rodesch, Jeffrey von der Schulenburg and Iñaki Montes — advanced to Tuesday’s Round of 32 in the men’s bracket.

Navarro opened the tournament with a 6-0, 6-0 win against Margarita Skiabina of Texas Tech. She will face Carol Lee of Georgia Tech at 11 a.m. on Tuesday in the second round. Subhash faced 8-seed Carson Branstine in the first round, winning 7-5, 6-2 to advance. She will face Carmen Corley of Oklahoma at 3 p.m. in the second round.

Freshman Elaine Chervinsky, who was originally an alternate for the tournament, earned a spot in the draw, but fell 6-4, 6-2 against Thasaporn Naklo of Iowa State in the first round.

Navarro and fellow sophomore Hibah Shaikh are the No. 3 seed in the doubles championships, which begins Tuesday. They will face Domenika Turkovic and Patricija Spaka of Arizona State in the opener at 7 p.m.

Rodesch downed George Harwell of Vanderbilt 6-3, 6-4 on Monday in the opening round and will face Gabriel Diallo of Kentucky on Tuesday at 2 p.m., while von der Schulenburg opened play by upsetting 9-16 seed Clement Chidekh of Washington 7-5, 6-3. He faces Brian Cernoch of North Carolina in the second round at 1 p.m. Montes downed Peter Makk of Southern California on 6-3, 6-1 Monday night. He will face 9-16 Seed Johannus Monday of Tennessee at 4 p.m.

Rodesch and senior Ryan Goetz, the ACC’s automatic qualifiers into the doubles championship, will play Jamieson Nathan and Matej Panik of Montana State in their opener on Tuesday in a time yet to be determined.

Live scoring will be available for the matches and live streaming will be available through the TennisOne app.

NOTES

• Navarro is the first player in program history to earn the No. 1 seed in the Championship. Danielle Collins was the No. 2 seed in 2016 when she won her second title. Navarro was the three-seed last year.
• Navarro and Shaikh are the first players in program history to earn a top-four seeding in the doubles championship.
• This will be Subhash’s second time competing in the NCAA Singles Championship. The two-time singles All-American was a 9-16 seed last season, falling in the Round of 32.
• This will be the second time von der Schulenburg has competed in the NCAA Singles Championship. It is the first invitation to the NCAA Individual Championships for the other three men’s competitors.
• Rodesch is the top-ranked singles player in the conference at No. 29 in the latest ITA rankings. Rodesch and Goetz have been ranked as high as No. 4 this season in doubles.