Sept. 26, 2014 SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State men's tennis team begins its fall season this weekend, as four Aztecs will compete in the Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Championships, with pre-qualifying singles play beginning on Saturday, Sept. 27, in Tulsa, Okla.
Senior Thorsten Bertsch (Mannheim, Germany), ranked No. 122 in the nation, will play in the singles qualifying draw starting on Monday, Sept. 29, while junior Freddy Gelbrich (Isernagen, Germany), sophomore Hendrik Jebens (Stuttgart, Germany) and sophomore Marko Goles-Babic (Zagreb, Croatia) will each compete in Saturday's pre-qualifying singles draw. The singles main draw is set for Oct. 2-5.
Bertsch was an all-Mountain West selection in both singles and doubles play for the third-consecutive dual season in 2014, and was ranked as high as 69th in the nation during the spring. The Aztecs' No. 1 singles player went 18-13 overall with a 7-3 mark during the 2013 fall season.
Gelbrich was ranked as high as 124th in the nation during the 2014 dual season, as he finished the spring 11-11 with 10 victories on the No. 3 singles court. Jebens went 8-11 in singles action last dual season, but was 7-8 in the No. 4 singles slot and 3-1 in MW play, as he finished the dual season on a three-match winning streak. Meanwhile, Goles-Babic went a combined 4-1 in the fall and spring seasons at Ohio State last year, lifting the Buckeyes to an appearance in the NCAA quarterfinals.
Bertsch and Goles-Babic will play together in doubles action, while SDSU's familiar duo of Gelbrich and Jebens will also team up. Both duos will play in the qualifying draw starting Sept. 29, while the doubles main draw begins on Oct. 2. It will be the first time Bertsch and Goles-Babic have played together, while the team of Gelbrich and Jebens went 12-6 in dual-match play last season, with the majority of its matches coming in the No. 2 doubles slot.