The Georgia men’s tennis team won two singles matches and all five of its doubles matches on the first day of the USTA/ITA Southeast Regional Championships Friday at the Ring Tennis Complex at Linder Stadium.

No. 3 seeded Austin Smith and Nick Wood advanced to the second round of the 64-player singles draw, while three Bulldogs doubles teams reached the round of 16.

In singles, Smith defeated Ignacio Jimenez of Florida Atlantic 6-0, 6-0, and Wood topped South Florida’s Justin Roberts 7-5, 6-3. The Bulldogs’ No. 2 seed Wayne Montgomery fell to Florida State’s Marco Nunez 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, while 11th-seeded Walker Duncan also took a first round loss 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to Florida’s Joshua Wardell. Emil Reinberg dropped a 6-3, 6-4 match to South Florida’s Vadym Kalyzuzhnyy, and Ben Wagland lost to Georgia Tech’s Michael Kay 7-5, 6-3.

“It was a rough day today,” said head coach Manuel Diaz. “We didn’t get off to a very good start, and I know everyone is disappointed. We lost four out of our six first round matches, and that’s just not what we expected. We didn’t seem to be ready to play our best, and we’re disappointed with that. On the positive side we finished with five doubles victories. Our guys showed character in bouncing back, so we finished today on a positive note, but not many of our guys had a good day in singles. We’ll start tomorrow with consolation matches, so it’s going to be a big test.”

In doubles, the top-seeded team of Smith and Wagland received a first round bye, then they defeated North Florida’s Lasse Muscheites and Zach Goldberg 8-1. Montgomery and Reinberg played together for the first time this fall and beat South Florida’s Peter Bertran and Kalyuzhnyy 8-0 and Florida State’s Terrance Whitehurst and Terrell Whitehurst 8-3. Duncan and Wood downed Georgia Southern’s Jose Landin and Ristomatti Lanne 8-3 in the first round, then knocked off Miami’s Christian Langmo and Jesse Flores, 8-5.

The singles and doubles winners from all 12 regional sites will earn bids to the National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships in New York Nov. 12-15.

Day two action begins Saturday at 8 a.m. with round of 32 singles consolation followed by second round main draw matches. There will be two rounds of singles matches and one round of doubles on Saturday.

Joshua Wardell (UF) def. [11] Walker Duncan (UGA) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3

#104 Nick Wood (UGA) def. Justin Roberts (USF) 7-5, 6-3

[3] #17 Austin Smith (UGA) def. Ignacio Jimenez (FAU) 6-0, 6-0

Vadym Kalyuzhnyy (USF) def. Emil Reinberg (UGA) 6-3, 6-4

Michael Kay (GT) def. #111 Ben Wagland (UGA) 7-5, 6-3

Marco Nunez (FSU) def. [2] #16 Wayne Montgomery (UGA) 4-6, 6-4, 6-3

Walker Duncan/Nick Wood (UGA) vs. Jose Landin/Ristomatti Lanne (Ga.So.)
Wayne Montgomery/Emil Reinberg (UGA) def. Peter Bertran/Vadym Kalyuzhnyy (USF), 8-0

Bye: [1] #1 Austin Smith/Ben Wagland

[1] #1 Austin Smith/Ben Wagland def. Lasse Muscheites/Zach Goldberg (UNF), 8-1

Walker Duncan/Nick Wood (UGA) def. Christian Langmo/Jesse Flores, 8-5