Brock Anderson and Finn Willman found an efficient first result as a pair Friday, beating Grand Canyon's Daniel Jankoski and Nikos Lehmann 6-2 in the opening round of the San Diego Veterans Tennis Classic. Playing on USD's courts, both San Diego State players earned their first doubles win of the fall before the afternoon shifted into two difficult singles matches.
A short-set doubles score leaves little room to recover from a slow start. Anderson and Willman avoided that problem, taking the match by four games in their first competition together. The result established an early point of reference for a pairing that had no shared college record entering the day: service patterns and return positions held up well enough to separate from a Grand Canyon team before the set tightened.
Willman's singles match moved in the opposite direction. Jankoski won the first set in a tiebreak, 7-6, before Willman answered 6-3 in the second. The deciding set went to Jankoski 6-3. One tiebreak and one break pattern separated a three-set match, turning Willman's afternoon into a test of resetting after the same opponent he had helped beat in doubles.
Anderson faced Victor Lima and lost 6-2, 7-5. The second set was the competitive turn: Anderson moved from a four-game first-set defeat to a set decided by one late break. He did not force a third, but the score shows the match narrowing rather than repeating its opening shape. Fall tournaments often make that adjustment as important to coaches as the final line.
The mixed results are not a team dual score. Tournament play separates doubles and singles into individual draws, allowing coaches to test combinations without the fixed lineup of the spring season. Friday therefore produced three independent outcomes: one win for a new Aztec pair and two singles losses. It did not produce a San Diego State loss to Grand Canyon in the conventional team sense.
The location gives SDSU a useful fall test without leaving San Diego. Hogan Tennis Center places the Aztecs on USD's courts while still bringing opponents from outside the city into the draw. The compact schedule also forces a quick switch from shared-court decisions to individual problem solving. Anderson and Willman moved from a successful two-player pattern into singles matches where neither could rely on a partner to absorb a weak return game.
SDSU's official recap reports scores and opponents but offers no point-by-point chart, first-serve percentages or break-point totals. That limits any tactical conclusion beyond the visible set progression. The doubles margin was decisive. Willman's singles match changed hands over three sets. Anderson closed the gap in his second set but could not extend the match.
The Veterans Classic continues Saturday with San Diego State scheduled against players from California. Doubles begins at 2:30 p.m., followed by singles at 3:30. Anderson and Willman will carry a new pairing's first win into that session. Their next task is twofold: determine whether the doubles structure travels to another opponent and convert the closer stretches of Friday's singles into complete sets.