Bears Play in S.F., at UCSB This Week

BERKELEY – California will keep up its traditional busy fall schedule when the Golden Bears play in two different tournaments this week, with some Bears playing in the Battle in the Bay in San Francisco and others heading to the UCSB Classic in Santa Barbara, California. Both tournaments will run from Friday through Sunday.

Cal sophomore Andre Goransson is the defending singles champion at the Battle in the Bay, and he will compete at the University of San Francisco tournament along with senior Gregory Bayane, sophomore Filip Bergevi and freshman Billy Griffith.

The Battle in the Bay features a 32-player singles field and a 16-team doubles field. Players from UCLA, Stanford, USC, San Diego State, Cal Poly, Saint Mary’s, Pacific, Pepperdine, Boise State, Santa Clara, San Diego and Duke will join the Bears and host San Francisco Dons at the tournament. Admission is free. The draws, list of players and results are available at this page. For more information on the Battle in the Bay, please visit its website or the tournament’s Facebook page.

Senior Bear Nikhil Jayashankar won the top singles crown at last year’s UCSB Classic. Senior Chase Melton, juniors Mads Engsted, Wyatt Houghton, Jordan Smith and Hasier Pastor and freshman J.T. Nishimura will join Jayashankar in Santa Barbara.

This year’s UCSB tournament includes players from host UCSB, Cal, UCLA, Loyola Marymount, Cal Poly, UC Riverside, UC Davis, Grand Canyon and UC San Diego. Action is slated to take place at the Rec Cen Courts and Stadium Road Complex.

Associate head coach Tyler Browne will accompany the Bears to Santa Barbara, while head coach Peter Wright leads the Bears to San Francisco.

The draws for the UCSB Classic are forthcoming.

Scouting the Bears

• Andre Goransson claimed a berth in main draw singles through the qualifying tournament for the recent Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Goransson fell in the main draw’s opening round of 64 to Duke’s Nicolas Alvarez, 6-0, 3-6, 6-2
• The seventh-ranked doubles team of Gregory Bayane and Chase Melton – which earned All-America honors last season – earned an invitation into main draw doubles at the All-American Championships; the Bears lost in the opening round of 32 to Texas A&M’s Jeremy Efferding/Jordan Szabo, 4-6, 6-3, 1-0(8)
• Sophomore Filip Bergevi, the 2014 ITA Northwest Region Rookie Player of the Year, reached the singles quarterfinals of the Porsche Napa Valley Tennis Classic; he fell in the opening round of qualifying singles at the All-American
• Junior Oskar Wikberg – a transfer from Wisconsin – reached the second round of qualifying singles at the All-American
• Wikberg paired with Bergevi in qualifying doubles at the All-American, but the Swedes fell in the round of 32
• Freshman Billy Griffith was undefeated (3-0) in the season-opening Porsche Napa Valley Tennis Classic at the Meadowood Napa Valley Resort; last week, he won his first round in the qualifying of the $100,000 Tiburon Challenger, eventually losing to Liam Broady (ATP #271)
• In singles, Bayane, put together an 18-11 singles record mostly playing on court five last year and had a 2-1 record at Meadowood; he fell in the first round of qualifying singles at the All-American
• Two proud Cal alumni lead the Golden Bears: Peter Wright (class of ’91) is in his 22nd year as head coach, while associate head coach Tyler Browne (class of 2008) is in his seventh year on the staff

Last Time: Engsted Wins Singles, Doubles Crowns in Davis

Mads Engsted won two titles and California won four total as the Aggie Invitational came to a close on Sept. 28 at UC Davis.

Engsted captured the flight A singles championship, Engsted and J.T. Nishimura won the doubles flight A consolation crown, Wyatt Houghton won the flight B singles consolation final, and the pair of Nikhil Jayashankar and Jordan Smith netted the flight B doubles title at the Mayra Welch Tennis Center.

The fourth seed, Engsted bested Nevada’s Ryan Andrada, 6-0, 6-2, in the singles flight A final after defeating Sacramento State’s Sean Kolar in the semifinal. The Bear led, 6-3, 2-0, when Kolar retired with an injury. In the singles flight A consolation semifinal round, top-seeded Cal junior Hasier Pastor suffered an upset loss to Pacific’s Miguel Diaz, 5-7, 6-4, 1-0(9).

Houghton started the day with a 7-6(3), 6-2 victory over Sacramento State’s Joaquin Marquez in the singles flight B consolation semis. The Cal junior topped off his day with a 7-6(2), 6-4 win over Adam Levie of the host Aggies in the championship match.

The team of Engsted and Nishimura, a freshman, justified its No. 1 seeding in the doubles flight A consolation bracket with an 8-4 result over Brett Bacharach and James Wade of UC Davis in the final. Jayashankar and Smith, another top-seeded tandem, posted an 8-4 score to beat Pacific’s Diaz and Bernardo Oliveira in the doubles flight B final.

Also on Sept. 28, Cal freshman Billy Griffith – attempting to advance to the Tiburon Challenger singles main draw – fell to Liam Broady, 6-1, 6-3, in the second round of qualifying at the Tiburon Peninsula Club in Tiburon, California.

At the 2013 Battle of the Bay and UCSB Classic

California won singles championships in both the northern and southern parts of the Golden State on Oct. 13, with Andre Goransson winning the Battle in the Bay Classic crown and Nikhil Jayashankar capturing the UCSB Classic title. Goransson, a Golden Bear freshman, made news by upsetting top-seeded senior teammate and 41st-ranked Campbell Johnson at the California Tennis Club, 6-0, 6-2.

In Santa Barbara, Jayshankar, a junior, defeated Alec Adamson of UC Davis when the Aggie, down 5-0 in the first set, retired in the Flight A bracket. Also in Flight A, Cal sophomore Wyatt Houghton played for third place but lost against the Aggies’ James Wade, 5-7, 6-2, (10-4).

Houghton paired with junior Chase Melton in the Flight A doubles final, but the Bears lost to the UC Davis pair of Adamson and Adam Levie, 8-6.

Junior Jordan Smith won the Flight B singles seventh-place match. Smith also beat the Aggies’ Mitch Thorp, 6-4, 6-4, in Flight C singles action.

Smith paired with Thorp in the Flight C doubles round robin, with the UC tandem losing to UCSB’s Filip Karlsson/Erik Johnsson, 8-5.

Next Time

The Bears play in the in the USTA/ITA Northwest Regional Championships in Stanford, California.