SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State men's tennis team opens its 2018 fall schedule this weekend with a split roster competing at the Wildcat Invitational in Tucson, Ariz., and the Battle in the Bay Classic in San Francisco, Calif.
A total of four Aztecs will appear at the Wildcat Invite to be conducted Sept. 21-23 at Ventana Canyon Golf and Racquet Club, including juniors Rafael Gonzalez Almazan, Arnaud Restifo, and Nicholas Mitchell, along with sophomore Jan Kirchhoff.
Gonzalez Almazan was the Scarlet and Black's top singles winner last season, finishing with an 18-12 record, including a 7-3 mark during the 2017 fall tournament schedule, highlighted by the Flight 2 championship at the Aztec Invitational. The Madrid, Spain, native also collected his first all-Mountain West honor in doubles competition, teaming with Gjoels-Andersen to post a 6-2 ledger.
Restifo, who transferred from Oklahoma last season, also received all-MW singles recognition in his first season with the Scarlet and Black. The Nice, France, product tied for second on the squad with 12 victories, capped by a key decision in the Aztecs' conquest of New Mexico in the MW quarterfinals last spring.
Meanwhile, Kirchhoff and Mitchell will be making their second straight appearances at the Wildcat Invitational, which also includes players from host Arizona, Boise State, Brigham Young, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Grand Canyon, Mesa Community College, Northern Arizona and Ottawa University (Ariz.). Kirchhoff showed promise during his freshman campaign last season, ranking fourth on the team with 11 singles victories, while Mitchell looks to continue his steady improvement.
In addition, San Diego State will be represented by senior Sander Gjoels-Andersen and sophomore Ignacio Martinez at the University of San Francisco's Battle in the Bay.
In singles play on Friday, Martinez will square off against Wake Forest's Bar Botzer in the round of 64, starting at approximately 10 a.m., while Gjoels-Andersen will face Stanford's William Geneson no earlier than 11:30 a.m. on the courts of California Tennis Club
In doubles competition, Gjoels-Andersen and Martinez received a first-round bye and will lock horns on Saturday morning against the winner between Alan Gadjiev and Morgan Dill of Wake Forest and Bertus Kruger and Sander Jong of TCU, beginning at 8:30 a.m.
Martinez is looking to build on a strong freshman season when he tied Restifo for second on the team with 12 singles victories, while Gjoels-Andersen was an all-MW selection in doubles a year ago.
In addition to the Aztecs and the aforementioned squads, other schools slated to participate in the Battle in the Bay Classic include California, Cal Poly, Hawai'i, Michigan, Pacific, San Diego, USC, TCU and Texas Tech.
Following this weekend's action, San Diego State will return to the court for the ITA Men's All-American Championships, which get underway on Saturday, Sept. 29, in Tulsa, Okla.