University of California Athletics

2021 Cal Sports Quarterly Feature: Driven to Help

3/16/20 Daily Cal Feature

2021-22: The Cal veteran finished the season with two national rankings – 98th in singles and (with Carl Emil Overbeck) 36th in doubles…in the ITA Northwest Region polls, Kikuchi was ranked fifth in singles, and Kikuchi & Overbeck were sixth in doubles…Kikuchi compiled records of 20-16 in singles and 18-11 in doubles, including a 16-9 mark with Overbeck…the Cal tandem earned an at-large berth to the NCAA Doubles Championships, beating Middle Tennessee State’s 70th-ranked Francisco Rocha and Oskar Brostrom Poulsen, 4-6, 7-6(6), 1-0(7), in the first round before falling to VCU’s 30th-ranked Charles and Maxence Bertimon, 7-6(5), 6-4,  in the round of 16…during the regular season, Kikuchi clinched three straight 5-2, home victories for Cal, including a win over Santa Clara on March 11, a win over No. 22 Utah on March 13 & a March 16 triumph over Purdue at the Hellman Tennis Complex…he was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week after leading Cal past Santa Clara and Utah…Kikuchi competed in the ITA Northwest Super Regional Championships in the fall, reaching the singles semifinals in Seattle…posted a big win in Harvard’s Chowderfest in September, beating Florida’s fourth-ranked Duarte Vale, 4-6, 6-4, 11-9…began the season capturing the doubles title with Overbeck at the Battle in the Bay Classic, with the Bears defeating USC’s Bradley Frye and Stefan Dostanic, 8-3, in the final in San Francisco.

2020-21: Was 2-1 in singles (1-1 at court one and 1-0 on court two) and was 2-0 in doubles (both on court three)…clinched Cal’s season-opening, 5-2 win over Saint Mary’s with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Fabian Roensdorf on court two…paired with Kent Hunter to beat the Gaels’ Matis Bot and Karlo Divkovic, 6-4, and clinch the doubles point…beat UNLV’s Alex Kobelt, 6-1, 6-3, as part of Cal’s 4-3 victory over the Rebels in the ITA Kickoff Weekend consolation match in Los Angeles…partnered with Philip Hjorth to defeat UNLV’s Jackson Atherton and Anton Ornberg, 6-0.

Spring 2020: The Japan native was ranked 36th in the Oracle ITA poll from March 3 and compiled a 13-9 singles record in the 2019-20 season…he clinched Cal’s 4-0, dual-match opening win over Miami (Fla.) in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over the Hurricanes’ 63rd-ranked Adria Soriano Barrera…Kikuchi was also 8-6 in doubles as a junior…Kikuchi teamed with Jack Molloy to post a 3-2 doubles record, with the duo winning its last three official matches… Kikuchi and Molloy clinched the doubles point in Cal’s 4-0 win over Sacramento State, beating Louis Chabut and Hermont Legaspi, 6-1, on court one and secured the doubles point in Cal’s 7-0 rout of Nevada with a 6-3 victory over Daniel Dudockin and Benjamin Campi…the duo also went 3-1 in the Pacific Coast Men’s Doubles Championship to reach the round of 16.

Fall 2019: Ranked 34th in singles and (with Jacob Brumm) 54th in doubles in the last Oracle ITA polls of the fall…won the singles title at the Audi Napa Valley Classic to open the 2019-20 season…at the Meadowood Napa Valley Resort, Kikuchi topped Harvard’s Ronan Jachuk, 10-8, in the Solinco Shootout final, after besting Michigan’s Mattias Simar, 6-0, 6-0, to close out group play…overall, the Japan native posted records of 10-6 in singles and 5-4 in doubles…won five times to surge into the singles final at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships, with Kikuchi falling to Damon Kesaris in the championship match…on the way to the final, Kikuchi beat Oregon’s 14th-ranked Joshua Charlton, 6-3, 6-2, in the quarterfinals and Stanford’s 54th-ranked Sangeet Sridhar, 6-3, 7-5, in the semifinals…also reached the Battle in the Bay Classic singles quarterfinals, with the sophomore Bear topping USC’s 64th-ranked Ryder Jackson, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, in the round of 16…qualified for the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships in singles…in doubles, Kikuchi reached the rounds of 16 at regionals (paired with Mert Zincirli) and in the Battle in the Bay (with Kent Hunter).

Spring 2019: Named the Pac-12 Freshman/Newcomer of the Year and the ITA Northwest Region Rookie of the Year, the Japan native posted a 20-16 singles record and 19-22 doubles mark in his first year of U.S. college tennis…he teamed with Jacob Brumm to reach the second round/round of 16 in the NCAA Doubles Championship in Orlando, Florida…in the opening round of 32, the Bears defeated Bryant’s 76th-ranked Wilson Dong and Matt Kuhar, 6-4, 7-5…they lost to a familiar pair in Mississippi State’s third-seeded/third-ranked Nuno Borges and Strahinja Rakic, 6-1, 6-2, in the following round…the Cal duo compiled a 17-17 record and earned a season-high national ranking of No. 6…in the season’s penultimate doubles poll, Kikuchi and Brumm were ranked 28th, with the last Oracle ITA Rankings slated to come out on May 29.

Fall 2018: Was 11-6 in singles and 10-6 in doubles…won his first four singles matches and first two doubles matches…he went 3-0 in singles and 2-1 in doubles in the season-opening Silverado Invitational to help the Bears capture the team title in the Napa tournament…won four times to reach the singles semifinals of the ITA Northwest Regional Championships…partnered with Jacob Brumm for the first time at the ITA All-American Championships, with the newly formed pair posting two upsets on the way to the quarterfinals, with the Bears topping Mississippi State’s top-ranked Nuno Borges and Strahinja Rakic, 6-3, 4-6, 1-0(5), in the round of 32 and defeating Virginia Tech’s 16th-ranked Carlo Donato and Mitch Harper, 7-6(1), 6-3, in the round of 16…Kikuchi and Brumm also reached the doubles round of 16 at regionals and closed the semester by reaching the semifinals of the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships…in the latter tournament, held in Surprise, Arizona, the duo upset two more ranked opponents in N.C. State’s 15th-ranked Igor Saveljic and Ivan Saveljic, 7-6(2), 6-3, in the round of 16 and Florida's 24th-ranked Brian Berdusco and Johannes Ingildsen, 7-5, 6-4, in the quarterfinals.

Personal/Previous: Graduate student...graduated with an undergraduate degree in political economy from Cal in 2022...Kikuchi played in the 2016 and 2017 U.S. Open Junior Championships and qualified for the singles main draw of the 2017 Australian Open juniors. He likewise reached the 2016 U.S. Open juniors singles main draw. In the 2016 Japan Open juniors, Kikuchi won three times to get to the singles quarterfinals, and in 2015 he advanced to the Japan Open juniors doubles quarterfinals.