BERKELEY – Andre Goransson's leads a group of Golden Bears into the $25,000 Burlingame Futures USTA Pro Circuit tournament indoors at the Broadway Tennis Center this week. Florian Lakat and senior Filip Bergevi are competing in main draw doubles, while Lakat, fellow senior Goransson, junior Billy Griffith and sophomore Gunther Matta open main draw singles on Wednesday.
 
Lakat earned a spot in singles by winning twice in qualifying singles over the weekend. On Saturday, he beat Isaiah Stode, 6-2, 6-2, and on Sunday Lakat topped Norwegian Sebastian Hawken, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
 
Live scores for the Burlingame Futures are available here.
 
The Bears recently completed the $25,000 Berkeley Futures pro tournament held at their Hellman Tennis Complex, with Goransson falling in the singles final to professional player Marcos Giron on Sunday. On Saturday, the Swede teamed with former Pacific player Sem Verbeek to play in the doubles final, but the tandem lost to the top-seeded Connor Smith and Rhyne Williams.
 
Earlier this month, the Bears played at the Broadway Tennis Center on two of the five days of the ITA Northwest Regional Championships presented by Oracle, when rain forced the tournament off of the outdoor courts at host Cal.
 
The Bears also played at the BTC due to rain last season when they routed Purdue, 6-1, on March 13.
 
Bears Celebrate 125 Years of Cal Tennis
Cal men's tennis is celebrating the 125th year of the program, which has produced multiple national champions and All-Americans in its storied history. The perennial powerhouse, which was founded in 1892, has won three national team titles, four national singles titles and 14 national doubles championships from NCAA, USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championships and ITA All-American Championships. The Golden Bears have also captured several conference singles and doubles titles as well.
 
Now in his 24th year as head coach at his alma mater, Peter Wright has coached 17 players who combined to earn 18 All-America honors and led the 2015-16 squad to the NCAA team semifinals. Wright has earned his share of accolades along the way, including his third Pac-12 Coach of the Year award last season and selection into the USTA NorCal Hall of Fame in the summer of 2015.
 
Poll Position
The Oracle/ITA preseason singles and doubles rankings will stand through the fall, with new singles and doubles rankings – as well as the first team poll – slated to come out on Jan. 5, 2017. Cal seniors Florian Lakat and Filip Bergevi claimed the No. 2 spot in the preseason doubles rankings. Last season, the pair advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Doubles Championship and earned All-America doubles honors after posting a 16-5 record. Also in the preseason singles poll, four Bears earned rankings: Lakat (18-12 record last year) is 13th, senior Andre Goransson (25-14) is ranked 17th, Griffith (27-8), a junior, stands at No. 61 and Bergevi (25-6) is ranked 77th.
 
Next Time
Bergevi, Goransson and Lakat will compete in the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships from Nov. 3-6 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York.