After a strong appearance by the San Diego State men’s tennis team at the Aztec Invitational approximately two weeks ago, senior Hunter Nicholas and junior Thorsten Bertsch looked to build on the Aztecs strong performance and represented SDSU at the Battle in the Bay Classic in San Francisco.

As a doubles team already this season, Bertsch and Nicholas have been successful coming up with big wins at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Men’s All-American Tournament. They were able to carry that success at the beginning of the Battle in the Bay Classic defeating California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo duo freshman Ben Donovan and senior Matt Thomson, 8-4 in the first round of play.

Bertsch and Nicholas then defeated the doubles team from Pepperdine University, 8-3, and Boise State, 8-5, to reach the finals for the doubles tournament.

In the finals for the doubles bracket Bertsch and Nicholas looked to square off against host school, University of San Francisco, and its doubles team of junior Bernardo Saraiva and sophomore Nils Skajaa. However, Nicholas and Bertsch were unsuccessful and were defeated handedly by San Francisco (8-2).

While Nicholas and Bertsch performed well, making it to the final round of the doubles bracket, they both also competed in the singles tournament.

Nicholas was knocked out of singles play in the third round after being defeated in a tight match against Boise State University’s sophomore Thomas Tenreiro, 7-5, 5-7, 7-6, (5). Yet it was his counterpart Bertsch who was able to make some real noise during singles play.

Ranked No. 114 in the country, Bertsch has established himself as a quality collegiate tennis player and showed why he deserved that credibility at the Battle in the Bay Classic.

After beating him and his partner in doubles play in the first round of the tournament, Bertsch was able to also defeat Cal Poly’s Thomson in singles play by two straight sets 6-3, 6-2. He then went on to win two matches the next day to place him in the semifinals of the tournament. There, Bertsch defeated freshman Andre Goransson from the University of California, Berkeley in three sets, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

On Oct. 19, SDSU will travel to Malibu to participate in its next tournament of the season, the ITA Regionals.

Photo courtesy of Stan Liu