If three rounds of qualifying play were tough for Alex Clayton of the Stanford men’s tennis team, then the main draw against tougher players should have been quite a challenge. But the freshman standout handled his test with ease yesterday, winning two matches to move into the third round of the main draw at the ITA All-American Championships.

Clayton had little trouble with first round opponent Robbye Poole of Mississippi, 6-2, 6-3. Later in the day, he played a tough match against Denes Lukacs of Baylor, also a qualifier. But Clayton prevailed in three sets, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, making him one of only four qualifiers left in the tournament.

Junior Matt Bruch did not fare as well yesterday in singles play. Bruch, who is ranked No. 36 in the nation in the ITA preseason poll, dropped a tough contest to Treat Huey of Virginia, the No. 12 player in the nation. Playing in his first match of the season, Bruch competed well in the first set and took Huey to a tiebreaker, but in the end did not prevail and lost the match 7-6(4), 6-3.

Bruch then moved on to the consolation singles bracket, where he played much better and swept through Juan Rebaza of Arizona State 6-0, 6-3. He plays Ricardo Soriano of host Tulsa tomorrow in the second round of the consolation bracket.

In doubles play, Bruch and teammate Blake Muller, the No. 2 ranked team in the nation, also dropped their first match of the season 9-7 to Alex Cojanu and Keziel Juneau of William & Mary.

Clayton, who improved his record to 5-0 on the season, moves on tomorrow to play Philippe Frayssinoux of Mississippi State University, twice a winner in straight sets yesterday. One more win for Clayton puts him in Saturday’s quarterfinal round.