By Karen Ronney
Top collegiate level doubles action was in great supply recently at the130th Pacific Coast Men’s Doubles Championship at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club. This prestigious event was loaded with San Diego area talent of all ages and levels including coaches and players. Champions were UCLA’s Govind Nanda and UCLA Coach Johannes de Villiers. The Bruin duo defeated USC’s Brandon Holt and Riley Smith, 7-6 (7-0), 4-6, 10-4, to win the title.
“It was the first time we played together,” said Nanda, a UCLA freshman. “I think we did pretty well.”
It’s been roughly three years since de Villiers, a 29-year-old former touring pro from South Africa, saw his name in a draw.
“I know I am still playing pretty good tennis, but I really don’t get a chance to compete,” de Villiers said. “So, for me, it’s a lot of fun to play again, especially with someone like Govind. I can’t say how much fun it is.”
The 128-team had teams from 15 schools including Ball State, Boston College, Chapman University, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS), Oklahoma State University, Pepperdine, San Diego State University, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Los Angeles, UC San Diego, University of Southern California, University of San Diego and Villanova.
“There is nothing like the Pacific Coast Doubles,” said Bill Kellogg, President of La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club. “It was founded by Dwight Davis and was the inspiration for today’s Davis Cup Competition between nations. The names that appear on the magnificent perpetual trophy are most of the same names that appear on the trophies of the grand slams tournaments. We divided the tournament into college teams and independent teams. When we got down to the finals, it was the #1 seeded college team – Tracy Austin’s son, Brandon Holt and Peter Smith’s son, Riley, facing off against the #1 seeded Independent Team, UCLA Assistant Coach Johannes de Villiers and UCLA freshman Nanda Govind. This year, the Independent seeds walked away with the title. It was a fitting tribute to the storied history of this amazing event.”
Local standout Robert Liu, a sophomore at CMS, had enjoyed success with partner jack Katzman. The pair reached the main draw round of 16, and still found time to help CMS Coach Paul Settles demonstrate great doubles drills at the USPTA San Diego Convention, an event held simultaneously at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club.
“Robert and Jack pulled an amazing upset win over UCLA’s No. 2 team,” said USPTA pro Solomon Liu, also the father of Robert. “By reaching the round of 16 in the main draw, they had the best result in CMS’s history (in that event.)”
The Pacific Coast Men’s Doubles Tournament started in 1942 and is one of the five oldest events in the world, and the second oldest in California. It was first held in 1890 at The Hotel Del Monte in Monterey, California, the event was created to promote the sale of real estate on the Monterey peninsula. The original concept pitted the best players from the East versus those from the West. This coast-to-coast rivalry was the inspiration for the Davis Cup. Past winners of the Pacific Coast Men’s Doubles Championship include some on the greatest names in tennis, including Jack Kramer, Ted Schroeder, Bobby Riggs, Pancho Segura, Don Budge, Tony Trabert, Stan Smith, Bob Lutz, Arthur Ashe, Dennis Ralston and John McEnroe.
San Diego State University had a strong showing with the doubles teams of Jan Kirchoff and Ignacio Martinez and Amaud Restifo and Fabian Roensdorf, who both reached the round of 16 in the main draw. Aztec Warrior teammates David Hough and Nicolas Vinei and Nicholas Mitchell and Gavin Spencer reached the round of 32. SDSU’s Sander Gjoels-Anderson and partner Rafael Gonzalez Almazan advanced to the round of 64.
UCSD’s top finishers were Zachary Emert and Richard Han, who advanced to the round of 32. Other Triton teammates were David Higgins and Marius Ruh, Sahm Irvine and Neil Tengbumroong, and Marc Isaia and Sreeganesh Manoharan (9).
In other collegiate action, San Diego’s Ivan Thamma joined long time partner David Goulak, who are the No. 1 team at UC Davis. To date, they are 17-3 in the 2018-2019 season. They reached the quarterfinals of the consolation draw. CAL’s Jacob Brumm of San Diego and partner Yuta Kikuchi, the No. 2 seeds, were quarterfinalists.
This tournament is unique because it is one of the few collegiate events where coaches can compete together or with their players. While the spotlight was on the champion duo of UCLA Coach de Villiers and player Nando, there were other success stories. SDSU Coaches Gene Carswell and Jeff Thomsen entered the draw and met UC Davis Coach Eric Steidlmeyer (former UCSD men’s coach), who teamed with UCD player Adam Levie of San Diego. Steidlmeyer and Levie were consolation quarterfinalists. Stanford’s Timothy Sah of San Diego partnered with Cardinal Coach Sameer Kumar. Others in the draw were Pepperdine Coaches Adam Schaechterle and Tassilo Schmid, Oregon State University Coach Jeremy Nicholas and Cal Coach Tyler Brown.
Other San Diego area competitors were:
- Siem Woldeab La Mesa and Eshan Talluri SD
- Videl Castillo SD and Steven Vanderwesthuyzen Lexington KT
- Matthew Lanahan Chula Vista and Derek Wong La Jolla
- Cliff Comfort SD and Campbell Johnson RSF
- Michael and Jayson Blando SD
- Bryce Bettwy LJBTC and James Kellogg SD
- Rodolfo Bukich SD and Brandon Beardsley Ramona
- Sasha Kovacevic SD and Scotland Garapedian LA
- Rae Lan SD and Jonathan Zhent Qi Zhang LA
- Logan Smith Carlsbad and Henry Ji Marina Del Ray
- Matthew Sah SD and Phillip Martin Los Altos
- Ivan Smith SD and Christopher Papa Cypress
- Carson Kellogg SD and Sam Rudenberg La Jolla
- Brett Bacharach SD and Matthew Meyer Cardiff
- Maxwell Weishan SD and Ryan Lee La Canada
- Derek Miller SD and Jordan Sadowski OSU
- Brett Buffington La Jolla and Trent Miller SD
- David Bushnell SD and Ken Zanio SD
Special thanks to communications specialist J. Fred Sidhu, an outstanding tennis writer, who contributed to this story with information and the photo of the champions.
San Diego Tennis News 
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