Cal Hosts TCU Friday, Texas Saturday

BERKELEY – Led by the top-ranked doubles team of Filip Bergevi and Florian Lakat, California will host TCU and Texas this week at the Hellman Tennis Complex. The No. 5/6 Golden Bears, who have a 9-2 record, take on the No. 31 Horned Frogs (5-4) at 5 p.m. on Friday and play the No. 6/8 Longhorns (13-3) at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Cal swept the Texas schools on back-to-back days during the regular season last year. The Bears beat the host Longhorns, 4-0, on Feb. 6 in Austin and then upset then-No. 2 TCU, 4-2, on Feb. 7 also in Austin. Cal met up with the Horned Frogs again in the postseason, edging TCU, 4-3, in the NCAA round of 16 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Bergevi and Lakat were previously ranked No. 2. The senior Bears, who captured the doubles title at the Saint Francis Health System All-American Championships in the fall, improved to 14-2 with a 6-4 win over Tom Fawcett and William Genensen in Cal's 4-3 loss at Stanford on Tuesday.

Poll Position
In Wednesday's USTA Top 25 poll, Cal is ranked fifth, while the Golden Bears are ranked sixth in Tuesday's Oracle/ITA poll.

In Tuesday's Oracle/ITA individual rankings, Lakat is 14th, senior Andre Goransson is 30th, junior Billy Griffith is 53rd and Begervi is 109th in singles. Cal has two nationally ranked doubles team, including Goransson and Griffith, which is ranked 54th.

Scouting the Bears

Florian Lakat, a previous Pac-12 Player of the Week (Feb. 20), has a 14-6 singles record and is 7-3 at court-one singles
Andre Goransson, who has an 18-6 singles record and beat Bergevi for the singles title at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships last fall, clinched Cal's 4-3 win over Michigan on Feb. 28
Bergevi, who returned to the lineup against Stanford after missing some action, is 13-5 in singles
Goransson and Griffith have a 13-3 doubles record, including a 7-6(0) win over Sameer Kumar and Michael Genender to clinch the doubles point in Tuesday's Big Slam
In singles, Griffith has a 17-3 record; his thrilling three-setter clinched the win over UCSB in the second half of a doubleheader on Feb. 26, and he beat the Cardinal's 89th-ranked Jack Barber, 6-3, 6-1, on Tuesday on the Farm
Two proud Cal alumni lead the Golden Bears: 2016 Pac-12 Coach of the Year Peter Wright (class of '91) is in his 24th year as head coach, while associate head coach Tyler Browne (class of 2008) is in his ninth year on the staff

Scouting TCU

The Horned Frogs are ranked 31st in the Oracle/ITA poll and are only receiving one vote in the USTA Top 25
In its last match, TCU lost to Wake Forest, 4-3, at home on Monday
In singles, Cameron Norrie is ranked 23rd, Alex Rybakov is ranked 84th, Guillermo Nuñez is ranked 93rd and Jerry Lopez is ranked 110th
TCU's Trevor Johnson and Reese Stalder is ranked 13th and the pair of Nuñez and Rybakov is ranked 27th in doubles
David Roditi is in his seventh year as TCU's head coach

Scouting Texas

The Longhorns are ranked sixth by the USTA and eighth in the Oracle/ITA poll
Texas plays at Stanford on Friday before taking on Cal on Saturday
In its last match, Texas defeated Rice, 6-1, on Sunday in Austin
The following Longhorns are ranked in singles: No. 12 Christian Sigsgaard, No. 34 Yuya Ito, No. 70 Harrison Scott and No. 108 Leonardo Telles
Michael Center is in his 17th year as head coach of Texas

TennisRecruiting.Net Tabs Cal's Class No. 1
TennisRecruiting.net named Cal's recruiting class No. 1 in its winter rankings. The five-man class of Jacob Brumm, Paul Barretto, Jackson Suh, Ben Draper and Jack Molloy – which arrives in Berkeley next fall – gave Cal (with 461 points and 8 first-place votes) the edge over Florida (460 point, 8 first-place votes) and UCLA (433 points, 3 first-place votes) in the top 25 poll.

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.

Next Time
Cal plays in the BNP Paribas Open Collegiate Tennis Challenge Presented by Oracle from March 17-19 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California. The tournament includes Baylor, Oklahoma, Purdue, SMU, South Florida, Tulsa and USC.