Dec. 21, 2012

BERKELEY - Two former California men's tennis players debuted on the professional circuit this year, as recent graduates Pedro Zerbini and Nick Andrews began playing International Tennis Federation (ITF) Futures Tournaments after their careers ended at Cal.

Pedro Zerbini
In his first full year on the ITF Circuit, Pedro Zerbini has quickly skyrocketed up through the rankings. Early on this year Zerbini was playing Futures tournaments all over the United States. Zerbini experienced his first success in April at Oklahoma City, making it out of the qualifying draw and making it all the way to the finals of the main draw before falling. Two tournaments later, in May at Vero Beach, Fla., Zerbini repeated his performance, making it out of qualifying and making a run to the finals before losing.

After his success in the United States, Zerbini returned home to Brazil in August to play in more futures tournaments. After a rough few tournaments, Zerbini had great success in Porto Alegre, winning his first futures tournament, netting him a purse of $10,000. In his four most recent tournaments, Zerbini failed to reach the quarterfinals in only tournament and reached the finals in Gramado before falling to fellow Brazilian Marcelo Demoliner. With Zerbini's success this year on the ITF Tour, his singles ranking has skyrocketed to a career high of 480 as of Dec. 17, after beginning this year with a ranking over 1,000.

Nick Andrews
After graduating in May from Cal, Nick Andrews took straight to the ITF Tour after a successful senior season in which he finished No. 64 on the ITA Singles Rankings and was an ITA All-American in doubles. Andrews' early success came in Chico during June when he made it out of qualifying and into the round of 16 before losing.

Andrews then traveled overseas to Europe to play futures tournaments. Andrews' best result came in doubles at Ilkley, England, where he reached the semifinals of the doubles draw. Andrews' most recent success has come in Brazil, making it out of the qualifying draw his past two tournaments and teaming with Zerbini - his former doubles partner at Cal - to play doubles. Andrews' current ranking is 1514, but his career high was 1391 in July.