Dec. 4, 2012

BERKELEY - The California men's tennis team signed Filip Bergevi and André Goransson to National Letters of Intent, head coach Peter Wright announced. The talented newcomers both hail from Sweden, and Goransson is the younger brother of Cal women's tennis senior Annie Goransson.

Filip Bergevi

Bergevi hails from Kristianstad, where he began playing tennis at the age of 6. He is currently the second-ranked junior in Sweden. Filip is one of the top players on the ITF Junior circuit, on which he has amassed a career-high world ranking of No. 34. The new Golden Bear was a key player on the 2012 European Summer Cup for Sweden's Under-18 Boys Team (a junior version of Davis Cup for European juniors), playing in all of the teams matches at the event. This year Bergevi also played in the Junior French Open, Junior Wimbledon, European Championships, Canadian Junior Open Championships and Junior U.S. Open. His best result came at the Canadian Championships, at which Bergevi and partner Mikael Torpegaard captured the doubles title.

Recently Bergevi played ITF Pro Circuit Futures Tournaments in Sweden. In five tournaments on the pro tour he has advanced past the first round twice, reaching the quarterfinals once, and won the doubles draw at the Futures Tournament in Jonkoping, Sweden, in October. His current ATP Tour singles ranking is 1812 and his ATP Tour doubles ranking is 924.

"Filip has been an incredible player on the ITF junior circuit in both singles and doubles," Wright said. "He caught our eye at the Junior U.S. Open, and we knew his team-oriented personality would be a great fit at Cal. Filip's coaches have nothing but positives to say about his work ethic and skills. He has maintained a very high academic standard in spite of all the travel he's been doing on the junior and senior circuits. He will be a great addition to the Cal tennis family."

André Goransson has another tennis-playing sibling in Claes Goransson, his brother, who is a junior at Virginia Commonwealth University. The Goranssons were raised in Hollviken, where they were coached by their father.

In the juniors, André Goransson had his best results at the Copa Gatorade 2012 in Venezuala winning two rounds in the main draw of singles and doubles, and winning three more rounds in the singles consolation draw. In the summer of 2012, he played in the European Boys Cup for Sweden's Under-18 Team. Goransson is currently ranked No. 4 among Swedish juniors.

This summer, André played in the ITF Pro Circuit Futures tournaments in Sweden. He played in seven ITF Futures Tournaments throughout the year and in two of the tournaments he made it out of the qualifying rounds, winning his first round match in the main draw at Uppsala in September, and earning his first ATP Tour World Ranking. Goransson is currently ranked 1652 on the ATP Tour.

"André is no stranger to Berkeley," Wright said. "His older sister, Annie, has been a star on the women's team for the last four years. He is the youngest brother of one of the top tennis playing families in Sweden. André is a bit of a late bloomer, with his best results coming on the men's pro circuit. Most important to me was how his club team from a small town in Sweden has been winning big matches against the top teams in the country. We know André's passion and team-oriented approach will be a wonderful fit for our team."