PALO ALTO, Calif. – The Saint Mary's Men's Tennis team will open their 2023 spring season when they take on the Stanford Cardinal this Thursday at 12:30 p.m. and will play at Cal on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. The Stanford match was originally set for Wednesday afternoon, but was rescheduled due to rain in the forecast.
 
THE DETAILS
Saint Mary's (0-0) at Stanford (0-0)
Thursday, January 12 at 12:30 pm
Taube Family Tennis Center – Palo Alto, Calif.
Live Stream

Saint Mary's (0-0) at Cal (0-1)
Saturday, January 14 at 1:00 pm
Hellman Tennis Complex – Berkeley, Calif.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Gaels are back in action for the first time since November, last competing in the Pacific Invitational in Stockton, Calif. Saint Mary's were active on both the singles and doubles courts, as they competed in their final fall matches.
 
Sophomore's Diego Jarry and Carlos Ramos brought the fire in their singles matchups, each prevailing in three-set thrillers.
 
Caelan Potts, Felipe Rincon, and Thibaud Maxant all played well despite not coming away with the match victory.
 
Saint Mary's saw success on the doubles courts as well, as two of the three Gaels pairings won their respective matches. Caelan Potts and Diego Jarry quickly took care of business, winning their match 6-3, as Carlos Ramos and Felipe Rincon played confidently as well, beating their opponents 7-5. Aidan Watts and Thibaud Maxant came out swinging in their doubles match, but were unable to maintain momentum, losing 6-4.
 
The Gaels are looking to improve upon an up-and-down 2021-2022 season which saw them finish 6-15 overall, and 4-6 in the WCC.
 
Saint Mary's are led by graduate student James Watt, the six-foot-nine Kiwi who's coming off another successful season with the Gaels, which saw him included in the WCC Honorable Mention list following the end of last season.
 
Watt went 20-16 overall on the season and was 5-3 in WCC Dual Matches. The New Zealand native took first place in the "A Flight Singles" at the prestigious UCSB Fall Classic in October.
 
After his 6-3, 6-4 victory over Phillip Jordan of the Gauchos in the quarterfinals, Watt defeated back-to-back players from Pepperdine University taking out Corrado Summaria 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 in the semifinal and Enrique Luque 4-6, 7-7, 6-4 in the finals to take home the trophy.
 
ABOUT STANFORD
Head Coach Paul Goldstein enters his eighth season as the Cardinal head coach, as his team heads into the 2023 season after finishing 19-6 last season. After winning the Pac-12 the season prior, Stanford finished third last season behind USC and Arizona.
 
The Cardinal have blanked the Gaels in the four times the programs have met previously and are 10-0 all time against SMC, with their most recent matchup on February 26, 2022 resulting in a 6-1 Stanford win in Palo Alto.
 
Stanford's Nishesh Basavareddy is 17-1 on the season after winning the ITA Fall National Championship, the ITA Northwest Super Regional and the consolation bracket at the ITA All-American Championships. Basavareddy's fall included a 9-1 record against nationally ranked opponents and a 3-0 mark against Pac-12 foes. He starts the spring as the ITA's No. 2 singles player.

Max Basing also had a strong fall, and begins the spring season as the nation's No. 7 singles player. Basing is 5-2 on the season, after an 18-2 dual record as a freshman, with all five victories coming over ranked opponents. The sophomore beat four straight ranked opponents at the ITA All-American Championships to advance to the tournament's semifinal round.

Arthur Fery returns for his junior campaign after taking the fall off from collegiate tennis to play in professional tournaments. An All-American last season, Fery was ranked as high as No. 1 in the country in singles and No. 6 in doubles, going 24-8 in singles and 26-10 in doubles overall. Fery is currently a top-500 singles player in the world, and picked up M25 professional wins this fall in singles in Sheffield, Nottingham and Malibu and in doubles in Sunderland.

ABOUT CAL
Yuta Kikuchi returns for his fourth season ended the 2021-22 campaign with a No. 98 singles ranking, posted a singles record of 20-16 last season. Philip Hjorth returns for his fifth season and was 20-14 in singles last year.  The pair of Kikuchi and Overbeck had a season-ending doubles ranking of 36 last year, while Kikuchi and Hjorth finished at No. 85.

But at 24-11, Carl Emil Overbeck led the Bears in singles wins last season. Newcomer Siddhant Banthia was a doubles All-American for Wake Forest in 2022, when he reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Doubles Championship. Banthia posted records of 14-3 in singles and 21-7 in doubles last season at Wake

Junior Ryder Jackson transferred to Cal from USC and posted records of 11-7 in singles and 17-7 in doubles for the Trojans last season. Jackson was named an ITA Scholar-Athlete and won the Southern California Intercollegiates singles title last year.