Sept. 24, 2014 SAN DIEGO - Former San Diego State men's tennis standout Hunter Nicholas (Park City, Utah) recently teamed up with Texas A&M graduate Junior Ore to win the Costa Mesa Pro Classic doubles main draw at Costa Mesa Tennis Center.
It was Nicholas' first doubles tournament victory on the USTA Pro Circuit, as he and Ore earned a three-set, comeback victory over the No. 3-seeded duo of Martin Redlicki and Mackenzie McDonald in the final round, 4-6, 6-4, 10-8. McDonald is a sophomore at UCLA and was listed as the No. 1 player coming into college by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) as a freshman, while Redlicki is an incoming freshman at UCLA.
Nicholas and Ore began tournament play by knocking off Daniel Gealer and Ryan Storrie in the first round, 6-2, 7-5, before holding off Deiton Baughman and Taylor Fritz in three sets in the quarterfinals, 0-6, 7-6 (3), 10-3, and defeating Jeff Dadamo and Tennys Sandgren in the semifinals, 6-4, 7-5.
In the Costa Mesa singles qualifying draw, SDSU sophomore Marko Goles-Babic (Zagreb, Croatia) advanced to the finals before falling to recent UCLA graduate Clay Thompson, 6-3, 7-5. Goles-Babic defeated Andrew Gong in the first round, 6-3, 6-3, took down Jun Wei Huang in the second round, 6-4, 6-1, and knocked off 10th-seeded Erik Elliott in the third round, 4-6, 6-1, 1-0. The transfer from Ohio State helped lead the Buckeyes to a 33-4 overall record and as high as a No. 1 ranking in the nation during in the 2014 dual season.
Aztec senior and No. 122-ranked Thorsten Bertsch (Mannheim, Germany) recently competed in the Irvine Futures men's singles qualifying draw, where he also reached the final round. Bertsch, seeded No. 13 in the tournament, defeated Bo Hardt in the first round, 6-1, 6-1, before taking down former Seattle University No. 1 singles player Kevin Lynch in the second round, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3. He then knocked off teammate Goles-Babic in three sets in the third round, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, before falling in straight sets in the finals to Alessandro-Damiano Ventre, 6-2, 6-2.
San Diego State continues fall action this weekend in the ITA Men's All-American Championships, beginning Saturday, Sept. 27, in Tulsa, Okla.