Men’s Tennis Adds More New Bears

BERKELEY – The California men's tennis team made more recent changes to the roster with the addition of BYU graduate transfer Sean Hill and freshman Derrick Chen. Hill joined the team this week, while Chen made his collegiate debut for the Golden Bears in last week's Hawaii Invitational.
 
On Thursday, Kris Kwinta, in his first season as the Peter Wright Director of Men's Tennis, announced the addition of volunteer assistant coach Jared Donaldson.
 
A native of Berkeley, Hill began his collegiate career at Wake Forest and had a 5-4 singles record as a Demon Deacon in fall 2016. The left-handed Hill later transferred to BYU and posted an 83-25 singles record and 66-28 doubles mark in four seasons as a Cougar. He also captured two singles titles in the ITA Mountain Regional Championships while at BYU.
 
A five-time All-WCC selection (thrice in singles and twice in doubles), the 6-2 Hill played in the 2021 NCAA Singles Championship, falling in the first round. He compiled a 17-3 singles record last season, leading the Cougars in singles wins. Hill finished his final year at BYU with an ITA singles ranking of 100 and has a career-best ITA ranking of 55.
 
Also strong in the classroom, Hill garnered bronze honors as a member of the WCC Commissioner's Honor Roll in 2020-21 and earned 2021 Academic All-WCC honorable mention. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics in Provo.
 
Chen, who hails from Cambridge in the United Kingdom, is an internationally experienced player who calls competing in the Junior Davis Cup for Great Britain in 2019 – when his team finished sixth in the world – his best sports moment. In a quarterfinal against Spain in the annual team competition, Chen won his singles match, but Great Britain wound up falling, 2-1.
 
The 6-1 Chen has also played in the Wimbledon Juniors main draw, in 2019 and 2021, as well as in US Open Juniors in 2021. He won the 2021 18u National Championship in doubles in June, and Chen has a career-best ITF junior ranking of 76.
 
Cal plays a pair of nonconference opponents – at Tulsa on Saturday and at Tulane on Monday – to open the dual-match season.