No. 22 Cal Hosts Pacific On Thursday

Siddhant Banthia and the Bears are back in Berkeley after playing in the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Texas.

MTEN1/31/2023 12:42 PM | By: Cal Athletics

BERKELEY – The No. 22 California men’s tennis team returns to the Hellman Tennis Complex to
host Pacific in a nonconference clash on Thursday at 3 p.m. The Golden Bears have a 3-2 record after their recent run in the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Texas. The Tigers are 1-1.
 
Admission is free for regular-season home tennis at Hellman. Fans can watch home matches through the Hellman live stream by clicking here and can also keep track of the Bears on the team’s Twitter @CalMensTennis.
 
Cal Splits In Austin
On Jan. 28 at the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Austin, Texas, the Bears took a 1-0 lead over sixth-ranked Texas when they captured the doubles point. Philip Hjorth and Yuta Kikuchi defeated Chih Chi Huang and Eshan Talluri, 6-2, on court three, and Ryder Jackson and Lucas Magnaudet clinched the point with a 7-6(5), victory over Siem Woldeab and Pierre-Yves Bailly on court two. But the Longhorns won four straight in singles to claim the 4-1 win.
 
Cal beat Florida Atlantic, 4-1, in the ITA Kickoff consolation match on Jan. 29.  The Bears again took the doubles point, with Siddhant Banthia and Carl Emil Overbeck clinching with a 6-4 result over Kevin Huempfner and Hunter Robbins on court one. Later, Cal sophomore Derrick Chen wrapped up the overall match when he beat Joao Graca, 7-5, 7-5, at court-four singles.
 
Poll Position
In the most recent ITA individual rankings, Ryder Jackson (13-7 record) is ranked 52nd in singles, while the duo of Yuta Kikuchi and Carl Emil Overbeck (4-0) is ranked 27th. The next ITA team poll comes out on Feb. 1.
 
Scouting the Bears

• Cal senior Philip Hjorth played the first two seasons (2018-19 and 2019-20) of his college career at Pacific
• In its Jan. 8 dual-match opener, Cal fell to No. 16 Florida State, 5-2, in Honolulu, with Ryder Jackson and Lucas Magnaudet clinching the doubles point and Yuta Kikuchi winning in singles
• Jackson had an impressive fall, reaching the singles final of the ITA Northwest Super Regional Championships and competing in singles in the ITA National Fall Championships
• Kikuchi posted a big win In the Hawaii Invitational on Jan. 9, defeating Duke’s fourth-ranked Garrett…