SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (Sept. 24, 2023) - Two student-athletes on the UC Santa Barbara Men's Tennis team opened up the fall season competing in The Battle in the Bay Tournament hosted by the University of San Francisco.

Gianluca Brunkow and Pablo Masjuan competed in doubles together before playing in their singles contests. The two beat the No. 12 ranked doubles partnership in the country in Sebastian Gorzny and Pedro Vives from TCU. Brunkow and Masjuan defeated the duo 8-6 to advance to the quarterfinal round. In the quarterfinals, the two would take on Alex Chang and Carl Emil Overbeck from Cal. A hard-fought match ultimately resulted in a Cal victory by a score of 8-6. 

In singles competition, Brunkow would earn a straight-set, 6-1, 6-1 victory over Asahi Harazaki from Oklahoma. The win put him into the second round of the tournament. In the second round, he would compete against the No. 23 ranked singles player, Colton Smith from Arizona. After dropping the first set 6-1 Brunkow gave Smith all he had in the second set and nearly came with a set-two victory. He dropped the set 7-6 (0).

Pablo Masjuan competed in his singles draw after Brunkow and was matched up against Neel Rajesh of Stanford. Masjuan, the 61st-ranked player in singles according to the ITA Preseason Poll unfortunately fell in straight sets, 6-4 and 6-3. His tournament would come to a close there.

UC Santa Barbara Men's Tennis will be back in action on Oct. 2 as some individuals will compete at the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla.

More information regarding the All-American Championships will be available in the coming weeks.