Preview: Battle in the Bay Classic

FORT WORTH – The fall tennis season starts a week earlier than past years, but at a familiar stomping ground for TCU.

The Horned Frogs are set to open the 2024-25 campaign at the Battle in the Bay Classic on Thursday at the California Tennis Club on the campus of University of San Francisco.

TCU is staging its season opener in the Bay Area for the seventh straight season.

The event is an early-season proving ground for many of the top talents across the country. A total of 32 singles players and 16 doubles tandems from schools spanning the Big 12, Big Ten, ACC, SEC and West Coast Conference comprise the field. Both the singles and doubles champions receive a wild card onto a series of ATP Challenger or Futures events along the west coast.

Three Frogs are traveling west; Pedro Vives, Lui Maxted and Duncan Chan. All three players are entered in the main singles draw.

TCU has a demonstrated history of success at the Battle in the Bay Classic. Two of the last five singles titles belong to the Horned Frogs. All-Americans Alex Rybakov and Jake Fearnley hoisted the chalice in 2018 and 2022. Over the last two seasons, TCU has accumulated a combined 19-8 singles record in the tournament.

Vives won the Battle in the Bay Classic singles consolation championship his sophomore year in 2022.

Maxted and Jack Pinnington partnered in doubles for the first time ever last September in San Francisco. They promptly rattled off consecutive victories and reached the semifinals. Maxted also picked up the highest-ranked singles victory of his career in the round of 32, earning a three-set win over No. 54 Alex Petrov (Illinois).

Chan is competing in the event for the first time ever.

Tournament Schedule – Main Draw

Thursday, Sept. 12 – Doubles RD16, followed by singles RD32
Friday, Sept. 13 – Quarterfinal doubles, followed by singles RD16 and quarterfinals
Saturday, Sept. 14 – Semifinal singles and doubles
Sunday, Sept. 15 – Singles and doubles championships

Tournament Schedule – Consolation Draw

Friday, Sept. 13 – Singles RD16
Saturday, Sept. 14 – Quarterfinal and semifinal singles
Sunday, Sept. 15 – Singles consolation championship

Scoring Format

All doubles matches are scored as 8-point pro sets with a 10-point tiebreaker in place if even at 7-all. Singles tilts employ a traditional best-of-three format.

Competing for TCU

Pedro Vives

Career fall singles record: 19-10
Career fall doubles record: 22-8
Vives received the preseason ITA No. 37 singles ranking in August.
He and Maxted were awarded a wild card onto the main doubles draw at the ITA All-American Championships, which run from Sept. 21-29 in Tulsa, Okla. Vives was also an automatic main draw qualifier in singles on the strength of his ITA ranking.
He has twice reached the ITA Conference Masters Championship, previously known as the ITA National Fall Championships. Vives was a doubles semifinalist and singles quarterfinalist in 2023. As a freshman, he and Maxted reached the doubles semifinals at Fall Nationals.
Vives and Maxted were the ITA Texas Regional doubles champions in 2023. Vives also finished as a singles finalist.
Vives accumulated a 17-7 combined overall record (9-4 singles, 9-3 doubles) during the 2023 fall season. He achieved a career-high ITA singles ranking of No. 14 following Fall Nationals.
The Spaniard is TCU's active career leader in combined overall victories with 128. Of his wins, 75 are in doubles.
One of three seniors on TCU's roster, Vives became the 31^st All-American in program history in May after earning seeded positioning in doubles at the 2024 NCAA Individual Championships.

Lui Maxted

Career fall singles record: 12-7
Career fall doubles record: 29-13
Partnering with Maxted in doubles has been a proven guarantee of a ticket to San Diego for the ITA Conference Masters Championships. He has advanced to Fall Nationals in each of his three seasons, all with different partners. He and Sander Jong reached the finals in 2022. Last year, Maxted and Chan advanced to the quarterfinals. Their run in San Diego was ignited by an upset of top overall seed Karlis Ozolins and Hunter Heck of Illinois.
He is one of four Horned Frogs to reach the doubles final in the 45-year history of Fall Nationals.
Maxted has finished as a finalist in doubles at the ITA Texas Regional for two straight years. He and Chan were the runner-up to Vives in last season's ITA Texas Regional. Maxted and Jong took second in the 2022 edition of the annual event.
Maxted collected a team-best 27 doubles victories in 2023-24.
He achieved a career-high ITA singles ranking of No. 39 in the 2024 preseason rankings. Maxted went 20-5 in duals in 2024.
Like Vives, Maxted was a main draw qualifier in singles for the ITA All-American Championships.

Duncan Chan

Career fall singles record: 4-3
Career fall doubles record: 11-6
Chan won six of his last seven contested doubles matches with Maxted last fall on their way to the ITA Conference Masters Championships.
Partnering with Maxted, Chan produced a 3-3 doubles record at the ITA All-American Championships last season.
He achieved a career-high ITA doubles ranking of No. 15 last year following Fall Nationals.
Chan's 11 doubles wins in 2023 were the most of any Horned Frog.
Chan picked up two singles victories apiece last fall at the inaugural US College Cup Invitational and in the qualifying draw of the ITA Texas Regional.
He produced a team-best 4-2 combined overall record in the US College Cup, which utilizes hidden dual play and is held in Torreon, Mexico.

Up Next

The ITA All-American Championships main singles and doubles draws begin on Sept. 25. The tournament is one of four fall championships used to determine the field for the NCAA Individual Championships, which take place on Nov. 19-24. From the event, 10 singles players and four doubles teams will qualify. The NCAA Individual Championships are being contested in the fall for the first time ever as a part of a two-year pilot program between the NCAA and ITA.

Overlapping with the ITA All-American Championships is the second US College Cup Invitational on Sept. 27-29. The event was incepted by Roditi in the spirit of increasing youth participation in the sport and international interest in the college game. Last fall, Chan, Julian Alonso, Kaj Quirijns and Luke Swan competed in the three-day event.

Schedule