SAN FRANCISCO – Three Golden Bears advanced to the singles round of 16 and one California team reached the doubles quarterfinals on the first day of the Battle in the Bay on Friday at the California Tennis Club.
After an opening round of 32 bye, the top-seeded duo of senior Gregory Bayane and sophomore Andre Goransson defeated Duke's Dan McCall/T.J. Pura, 8-3, in the round of 16 to reach the quarters of the main draw. The Bears will play USC's Nick Crystal/Connor Farren at 9 a.m. on Saturday.
The fourth-seeded Cal tandem of freshman Billy Griffith and sophomore Filip Bergevi also had a first-round bye in doubles. But the Bears fell in an upset to Adam Levie/Alec Adamson of UC Davis, 8-3, in the round of 16.
In singles, Cal's top-seeded junior Oskar Wikberg, third-seeded sophomore Andre Goransson and Griffith all moved onto the third round of the tournament. Wikberg and Goransson earned first-round byes, then Wikberg topped Pacific's Alex Hamilton, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6, and Goransson beat Adamson, 5-7, 6-1, 7-5. Wikberg plays USC's Tanner Smith on Saturday at 11 a.m., while Goransson plays USF's Nils Skajaa, at noon.
Griffith, unseeded, knocked off San Diego's Romain Kalaydjian, 6-2, 6-2, in the opening round of 64 and Pepperdine's Rakshay Thakkar, 6-3, 6-3, in the round of 16. The Cal freshman plays Stanford's Robert Stineman at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Bergevi, seeded second in singles, also had a first-round bye but lost to Stanford's David Hsu, 7-5, 6-3, in the round of 32. Bayane fell to UCLA's Ryoto Tachi, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4, in the round of 64. Both Bears next play in consolation singles, with Bergevi taking on UCLA's Austin Rapp at 11 a.m. and Bayane playing Pura, again, at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
With five Bears competing in the three-day tournament in San Francisco, the rest of the Cal squad is playing in the UCSB Classic that also runs from Friday through Sunday.
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Five Golden Bears in singles and two Cal doubles teams won to advance on the first day of the UCSB Classic on Friday at UC Santa Barbara.
In the flight A singles opening round of 16, junior Hasier Pastor topped UC Riverside's Cooper Bridge, 6-1, 6-3, freshman J.T. Nishimura beat Cal Poly's Lucas Lesoeur, 6-3, 6-2, and junior Mads Engsted defeated James Wade of UC Davis, 6-3, 6-3, to reach Saturday's quarterfinals. Senior Nikhil Jayashankar lost to Fresno State's Adam Glynn, 6-4, 6-4, and will next play in Saturday's consolation bracket.
The doubles team of Nishimura and senior Chase Melton won, 8-4, over LMU's Felix Van Kann/Jamie Thorpe, 8-4, in flight A doubles to advances to Saturday's semifinals.
Another Bear faced Thorpe, as junior Wyatt Houghton beat the Wave, 6-1, 6-0, in the flight B singles round of 16. In flight B doubles, the tandem of Houghton and Engsted got past Bryce McKelvie/James Wade, 8-4, to reach the semifinals.
In flight C singles, Cal junior Jordan Smith posted a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Grand Canyon University's Gregoire Balenci to book his spot in Saturday's quarterfinals. Cal's only other setback on Friday came when the pair of Smith and Jayashankar fell to Jesse Ross/Tommy Lam of UC Davis, 8-7, in flight C doubles.
