FORT WORTH, Texas – In one of the top tournaments across all of NCAA Division I, Tarleton tennis will have eight participants in an invite-only event.
 
Elif Albayrak, Elsa Boisson, Martha Makantasi, Ximena Morales, Emma Persson, Laure Razet, Clara Sobius and Celia Vaudiau will all play in the ITA Texas Regional Championship beginning Thursday, held at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center on campus of TCU in Fort Worth.
 
Players are chosen and ranked based on their Universal Tennis Rating. Because of her ranking, Persson has automatically advanced to the singles main draw, which begins on Friday. In the qualifying bracket held Thursday, players must win both matches to advance to the singles main draw.
 
All of the first singles qualifying matches will take place at 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. on Thursday. No. 7 Albayrak will battle No. 8 Texas State's Maria Lora; No. 9 Makantasi will play No. 10 Lamar's Emma Shasteen; No. 19 Sobius will face No. 20 Texas' Simran Kortikere; No. 32 Morales will match up with No. 31 Lamar's Elena Rubio; No. 35 Boisson will battle No. 36 UTSA's Adeliya Mukhutdinova; No. 57 Vaudiau plays No. 58 North Texas' Olivia Halvorsen. Whoever wins each of those matches will play their second round qualifying match at either 11 a.m. or 12:30 p.m.
 
In the afternoon, doubles main draw begins, with eight Texans participating – all six singles players from the morning, plus Persson and Razet. There are 64 pairs total – Boisson-Morales will play North Texas' Jasmine Adams-Matilde Morais; Albayrak-Makantasi face Houston's Blanca Cortijo Parreno-Azul Pedemonti; Razet-Sobius battle Rice's Federica Trevisan-Saara Orav; Vaudiau-Persson take on North Texas' Olivia Malm-Gloria Alogo Piqueras.
 
This is a four-day tournament, set to go through Sunday. Live results will be posted here.
 
Last year at this event, Makantasi and Deniza Marcinkevica beat their qualifying competitors from Texas, SMU, Sam Houston and Incarnate Word to advance to the singles main draw.