Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
Middle Tennessee
Ohio Valley Regionals
Men's Tennis primed to host Ohio Valley Regionals
10/7/2026 12:08:00 PM | Men's Tennis
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – The Middle Tennessee men's tennis team is set to host the 2026 ITA Ohio Valley Regionals at The Farm and Forge Club in College Grove, Tenn.
The event runs from Oct. 8-13, with Blue Raiders John Popowich, Asier Ayllon Prado, Antoine Mayoral, Clement Mayoral, Birtan Duran, Eric Crivei and Aryan Saleh all competing against the Ohio Valley's best.
The seven players competing at the event will have their first chance to qualify for the NCAA Individual Championship, needing to finish as part of the top doubles team or as one of the top two singles players in order to earn an automatic bid.
Middle Tennessee joins eight other schools from the Volunteer State to feature at the event, including Austin Peay, Belmont, Lipscomb, Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech, UT-Chattanooga, Vanderbilt and the University of Tennessee.
Last October, Birtan Duran competed in the 2025 ITA Ohio Valley Regionals in West Lafayette, Ind., posting a 2-1 singles record.
The tournament begins with a 64-player singles qualifying round on Thursday, with the top 16 players advancing to the main draw of 64 individuals on Friday. At the same time, 64 teams will begin competition in the doubles draw.
Popowich, Ayllon Prado and Antoine Mayoral will all compete in Thursday's singles qualifying rounds, joining Clement Mayoral, Duran, Crivei and Saleh for Friday's main draw if they qualify.
All three Blue Raiders competing on Thursday begin play at 11 a.m., with Popowich facing Vanderbilt's Roshan Santhosh to begin his qualifying run. Antoine Mayoral faces off against Owen Nguyen of IU Indianapolis, while Ayllon Prado will match up with Jy Hibbert of Southern Indiana.
The rest of Middle Tennessee's cohort will find out their matchups following Thursday's qualifying round.
In doubles on Friday, the Mayoral brothers will face off against Belmont's pairing of Cagan Efe Tufecki and Sean Clark. Popowich and Ayllon Prado will team up to face Cameron Kryscio and Ellison Minnaar of IU-Indianapolis while Crivei and Saleh find Xavier's Lukas Grossman and Andrew Spurck on the opposite side of the court.
The draws and schedule for the tournament can be followed here, with live streams for courts one to nine available here and streams for courts 10-18 available here.
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