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TULSA, Okla. -- Virginia Tech had two players split their opening matches in the D’Novo All-American Men’s Tennis Championships. Tennis’ top collegiate players are participating in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s (ITA) first national event of the 2008-09 tennis season.

Sebastien Jacques (So., Magog, Quebec, Canada) defeated Adham El-effendi (SMU), 7-5, 6-3, in his opening pre-qualifying match Friday morning. He will face the No. 3 seed Davey Sandgren (Tennessee) Saturday morning at 9:30 central time. Brandon Corace (Sr, Naples, Fla.) was not as fortunate dropping his match, 5-7, 7-5, 6-0, to Andrew Landwerlen (Denver). No. 75 Nicolas Delgado de Robles (Sr., Madrid, Spain) will see his first action in the qualifying round on Oct. 6-8. The second and third pre-qualifying rounds will take place on Saturday. Both Jacques and Delgado de Robles will be looking to advance into the Main Draw, Oct. 9-12. The event will be played at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.

The tournament includes six rounds of pre-qualifying and qualifying tournaments with the pre-qualifying matches starting today in Tulsa, Okla., followed by the qualifying rounds Oct. 6-8. The main draw begins on Oct. 9 with competition wrapping up on Sunday, Oct. 12.

Past men’s All-American participants include current professional stars such as recent U.S. Open quarterfinalist James Blake (in 1998 as a sophomore at Harvard) and Bob and Mike Bryan (in 1997 as sophomores at Stanford), the world’s top-ranked doubles team.

The other national title opportunities this season are the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships hosted by the University of Virginia in Charlottesville in November and the season-ending NCAA Championships in May.

For updates on Virginia Tech men's tennis, follow the Hokies on Twitter (@VT_MTennis).