Courtesy of San Diego State Athletics –
SAN DIEGO – Former San Diego State men’s tennis player Hendrik Jebens is competing in the Wimbledon Championships in London, England.
A native of Stuttgart, Germany, Jebens spent three seasons on The Mesa, 2013-14 through 2015-16. He was selected to the All-Mountain West singles team in the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Jebens played an instrumental role in the 2015 Aztec squad that qualified for the NCAA tournament and beat crosstown opponent San Diego in the First Round on its way to the Regional Final.
The No. 58-ranked doubles player in the world by ATP, Jebens is playing with partner Constantin Frantzen. In the first round, the pair faced Pavel Kotov and Cristian Rodriguez, winning in straight sets 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-3). They advance to the second round, where they will face the No. 2-ranked doubles team in the world of Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden.
Jebens and Frantzen also played in the Australian Open in January but were defeated by Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic in Round 1 on Day 5 of the tournament 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.
2023 was a monumental season for Jebens. He began the year ranked 136th on the ATP tour, itself a major improvement from his 435 ranking the year prior, and finished the 2023 ranked 63rd in doubles, a career-high. Jebens earned the improved ranking by winning seven challenger level ATP tournaments (Koblenz, Germany; Biel, Switzerland; Heilbronn, Germany; Augsburg, Germany; Como, Italy; Bad Waltersdorf, Austria; Orleans, France) as well as making it all the way to the finals of the ATP 250 in Metz, France, in November.
A number of younger Aztecs have also had tournament success this summer in Futures tournaments. Johannes Seeman is competing on the ITF Futures tour and won two matches to be a semifinalist in USA 11 and followed it up by making the finals of USA 12 with three wins and the quarterfinals of USA 15 after yet another win. Eugenio Gonzalez Fitzmaurice won a pair of matches to qualify for USA 15 in San Diego but was bested in the first round of the main draw. Gonzalez Fitzmaurice won two more matches to be a semifinalist in the 15K Santo Domingo futures doubles tournament in the Dominican Republic in June. Meanwhile, Mathieu Josserand won three matches to qualify for the 25K main draw in the Rabat, Morocco futures tournament in June after making the quarterfinals of the 25K Carnac, France futures tournament to earn his first ATP world ranking points in May.