SAN FRANCISCO – California's veteran star Florian Lakat, who's seeded No. 1 in the Battle in the Bay Classic, opened Friday's singles tournament with a three-set victory to advance to Saturday's round of 16. Two of his younger teammates – freshmen Dominic Barretto and Bjorn Hoffmann got their first taste of college tennis, and sophomore Gunther Matta also competed on the first day of men's action at the California Tennis Club.
 
Ranked 13th in the Oracle/ITA preseason poll, Lakat got a first-round bye and then defeated Cal Poly's Corey Pang, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, in the round of 32 to advance to play San Francisco's Ryan Marker at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday.
 
"Florian stuck to his weapons and played a good third set to win his match," Cal associate head coach Tyler Browne said.
 
Lakat is also teaming up with Hoffman in doubles at the annual tournament hosted by the University of San Francisco. The fourth-seeded Bears earned an opening round of 32 bye to advance to play Pacific's Kumura Adavelly and Jose Chamba at 9 a.m. in Saturday's round of 16.
 
Matta also earned a bye in the singles round of 64 but fell to USC's Riley Smith, 6-0, 6-0, in the round of 32. Barretto played in the round of 64 against Pepperdine's Jack Van Slyke, winning 7-5, 6-3, but lost to third-seeded Alec Adamson of UC Davis, 6-0, 6-4, in the round of 32. Hoffmann beat Stanford's Brandon Sutter, 7-5, 6-2, in the round of 64 but fell to Cal Poly's fifth-seeded Ben Donovan, 7-6(3), 6-1, in the next round.
 
Moving into the consolation singles draw, Matta will face Pacific's Tadiwa Chinamo at 11:30 a.m. in Saturday's round of 16.
 
"Today we learned a lot of lessons," Browne said. "Our freshmen, Nic Barretto and Bjorn Hoffmann, earned some hard-fought, first-round wins. They stayed disciplined and worked for it. To win at this next level takes a toll physically, and the boys struggled to keep that up in round two.
 
"Gunther's scoreline was no indication of how he played. With no-ad scoring and eight deuce points not going our way, that's the result.
 
"We will continue to move forward and focus on the areas that we can control."
 
The Battle in the Bay Classic, which includes a women's field, concludes on Sunday.