FORT WORTH, Texas – Lamar University jumped out to a quick start at the 2026 ITA Regional Championships Thursday afternoon. The Cardinals recorded six singles wins with junior Fabian Anthin advancing to the round of 16 on the tournament's opening day.
 
Despite number of wins the Cardinals posted Thursday Big Red had to work overtime to earn the victories due to number of marathon matches they faced. Among Lamar's 14 day one matches, half were forced to a third set. The Cardinals also had six sets go to a tiebreak, including one that finished 11-9, and sophomore Rintaro Shukuda who played in two tiebreak sets before his second match of the day was forced to a third set.
 
Anthin led the charge getting the Cardinals out of the starting gate quickly defeating UIW's Gerardo Delgado, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 in the opening round and carried that momentum into his round of 32 matchup. Anthin squared off against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Dani Lopez Adelino, 6-4, 6-4. Anthin's next match will come Saturday against Rice's Andrew Li. The start time for that match has not yet been posted.
 
Other Cardinals who picked up day one singles wins were junior Louis Drapeau over UIW's Rafael Candelas Ruiz, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1; junior Lukas Hamacher bested Abilene Christian's Jonas Keck, 6-3, 6-0; junior Maxwell Lindstedt defeated UIW's Alexandre Chauvel Gogin, 6-2, 6-1 and sophomore Rintaro Shukuda bested Texas Tech's Joseph Patton, 6-2, 6-4.
 
The Cardinals return to courts Friday for the start of doubles competition. Matches are set to begin at 9 a.m.