Several Southern California teams will contest one of the country’s oldest and long-standing events starting Thursday with the playing of the 128th Annual Pacific Coast Men’s Doubles Tennis Championship at La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club.
The tournament continues the tradition of giving dual seeds to the top 16 collegiate doubles teams and the top 16 independent doubles teams entered in the event.
K. Kwinta
The draws are up and the No. 1 seeded independent doubles team is Deiton Baughman and Kris Kwinta, who are members of the USC men’s tennis coaching staff. Kwinta is an associate head coach and Baughman is a volunteer assistant coach.
The top-seeded collegiate team is Arjun Kadhe and Lucas Gerch of Oklahoma State University. Kadhe, a three-time All-American, captured last year’s Pacific Coast Doubles title with OSU teammate Julian Cash. Gerch, a native of Berlin, Germany, won the 2015 Pacific Coast Doubles Championship with former OSU teammate Nicolai Ferrigno.
USC freshmen Brandon Holt and Riley Smith look like the early favorites and the team to beat.
To view the complete list of seeded doubles teams and full tournament draw, please click here.
The four-day doubles tournament is the second-oldest tennis event in the United States and will feature players from many of the top NCAA Men’s college teams along with a strong field of independent players, which include teaching pros, promising juniors, college coaches, and former tour players.
The following collegiate teams will be represented at this year’s Pacific Coast Doubles Championship: Boise State, Boston College, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Oklahoma State, Pepperdine, San Diego State, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Los Angeles, UC San Diego, University of Portland, University of San Diego, University of Southern California, University of Toledo, Villanova, and William & Mary.
“The players love coming to La Jolla to play doubles this time of the year,” said Tournament Director Bill Kellogg of the impressive field of talent at La Jolla this year. “We invite tennis fans to come and enjoy the matches. It’s going to be a spectacular four days of top-flight doubles action.”
The opening match of the Pacific Coast Men’s Doubles Championship will begin at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 2. Action will continue on Friday, March 3 at 8 a.m. Matches are scheduled to get underway at 9 a.m. on Saturday, March 4 and Sunday, March 5 (all times are PST).
Live streaming for each day of the tournament will be available online. Fans will have the ability to watch all tournament matches on a computer or mobile device. To access the live steaming link, please go to: http://www.ljbtc.com/Tennis/Tournaments
Live audio play-by-play of the semifinals and final, which will be played on Sunday, March 5, will be available on RadioTennis.com. Tennis broadcaster Ken Thomas will provide the web cast commentary.