Utah State University Men's Tennis

Aaron Paajanen (Pie-ya-nen) is entering his eighth season as the head men’s tennis coach at Utah State, as he was hired on July 22, 2019. In 2025-26, Paajanen led the Aggies to a sweep of the Mountain West regular season and tournament titles, going 19-6 overall with a 7-0 showing in conference play and earning the program's third-ever team appearance in the NCAA championships. Paajanen helped a quintet of Aggies earn all-MW honors as Jean-Baptiste Badon, Xavier Calvelo and Roman each earned All-MW Singles honors while Jakub Medved and Dmitri Goubin earned All-MW Doubles recognitions playing alongisde Calvelo and Badon, respectively. USU won three matches in three days to also win the MW Tournament with Badon earning Tournament MVP honors, Calvelo, Venger and Eliot Nobel receiving all-tournament singles honors and the duos of Calvelo and Medved plus Venger and Nobel also receiving all-tournament doubles nods. Utah State climbed as high as 51st in the ITA Rankings, the program's highest ranking since the 2018 season. Paajanen led USU to a 15-9 record with a 4-2 mark in conference play and a run to the semifinals of the MW Tournament. Paajenen helped a trio of Aggies earn spots on the all-conference and all-tournament teams as Sergi Mico Fenollar and Mohammad Alkotop earned spots on the All-MW Singles Team while Alkotop and Goubin were named to the All-MW Doubles Team. Following USU's semifinal run, Mico Fenollar, Alkotop and David Martirosian each earned a spot on the MW All-Tournament Singles team. During the 2023-24 season, Paajanen led the team to clinch the program's fourth Mountain West regular season title, posting an overall record of 18-5 and a conference record of 5-1. The team received numerous accolades, including Freshman of the Year for Mohammad Alkotop. Graduate senior Bodin Zarkovic was named to the All-MW singles and doubles teams, while senior Stijn Paardekooper earned spots on the All-MW singles, doubles, and All-Tournament singles teams. Additionally, Alkotop and junior Sergi Micó Fenollar were named to the All-MW singles team, sophomore Nuno Pinheiro was named to the All-MW doubles team, and Alkotop and Martirosian were named to the All-Tournament doubles team. Throughout the season, the Aggies were ranked in the top 100 nationally since February 20, reaching as high as 60th after achieving a 7-1 record in non-conference matches. In the 2022-23 season, he posted an overall record of 12-13 and 3-3 in conference to finish tied for third in the Mountain West Conference. Under Paajanen, seniors Bodin Zarkovic and David Cierny were named to the All-MW Singles and Doubles teams. In the conference tournament, he led the Aggies to the finals. They beat UNLV 4-3 to advance to the semifinals and beat the number one seed New Mexico 4-3 to advance to the finals. In the 2021-22 season, Paajenen led the Aggies to an 11-12 overall record, including a 4-2 mark in Mountain West play to finish second in the conference. Under Paajanen's tutelage, juniors David Cierny and Bodin Zarkovic were each named to the All-MW Singles and Doubles teams. USU also had seven players receive Academic All-MW honors while six players were named Mountain West Scholar-Athletes. In his second season at the helm of the program, the Aggies bounced back from the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season. Paajanen led USU to a 12-8 overall record, going 3-4 in Mountain West action. Three Utah State players earned all-Mountain West honors. Sergiu Bucur and Felipe Acosta were both named to the all-conference singles team, while the duo of Acosta and Javier Ruiz received doubles accolades. During the 2019-20 campaign, the Aggies finished with a 3-11 record as the remainder of the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Paanjanen guided Sergiu Bucur to earn all-Mountain West honors in singles after he went 8-10 overall, including a 7-7 record in dual match play. The Aggies were successful in the classroom as well, as five student-athletes earned academic all-MW honors, three were named MW Scholar-Athletes and five were named ITA Scholar-Athletes. Paajanen came to Logan after four years at Detroit Mercy, where he oversaw both the men’s and women’s tennis programs. Paajanen led the Titan men to a program-record 15 victories in 2018, capturing UDM’s first Horizon League in men’s tennis in program history. Individual accolades followed for Paajanen, as he was named the 2018 Horizon League Coach of the Year, also the first in Titan tennis history. Under his watch, the Detroit Mercy men improved every year, winning 11 matches in 2017, an eight-match improvement from the previous year, to the program-record 15 wins in 2018. By his third year, the Titan men combined to go 24-4 in conference singles with a pair of players earning all-league honors. In his first season with the women at Detroit Mercy, Paajanen coached one of his players to a perfect 9-0 record in Horizon League action, while a second earned second-team all-Horizon League honors in her senior season. Prior to Detroit Mercy, Paajanen was an assistant coach at Santa Clara for two years, helping the Broncos climb as high as No. 42 nationally during the 2013-14 season. During his tenure, two players were ranked in the top-20 in singles in the Northwest Region, while six student-athletes earned all-conference accolades. Paajanen was also instrumental in helping the Broncos build a 2014-15 recruiting class that was ranked No. 12 in the nation and No. 1 among mid-major programs. Paajanen began his Division I coaching career at Loyola Marymount, where he spent four seasons as an assistant coach. There, he helped his players to eight all-West Coast Conference honors and a number of victories over nationally-ranked opponents. Paajanen cut his coaching teeth at Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix, Ariz., as an assistant coach under the direction of his father and longtime coach Jim Paajanen on the men’s side and his mother, Barbara, on the women’s side. As a player, Paajanen began his career at Glendale (Ariz.) Community College under head coach Greg Prudhomme, and was ranked as high as No. 33 in the NJCAA in singles. Paajanen then spent his sophomore season at Cowley College (Arkansas City, Kan.) under head coach Larry Grose, earning NJCAA All-American honors before finishing his career at Point Loma Nazarene, where he was named a team captain and graduated with a degree in kinesiology. Season Overall Conference Wins Losses Percentage Wins Losses Percentage 2019-20 3 11 .214 - - - 2020-21 12 8 .600 3 4 .429 2021-22 11 12 .478 4 2 .667 2022-23 12 13 .480 3 3 .500 2023-24 18 5 .783 5 1 .833 2024-25 15 9 .625 4 2 .667 2025-26 19 6 .760 7 0 1.000 TOTAL at USU 90 64 .584 26 12 .684

Sergiu Bucur is entering his second season as an assistant coach for Utah State men's tennis after being hired in January of 2026. In his first season in Logan in 2025-26, Bucur helped lead the Aggies to a sweep of the Mountain West regular season and tournament titles, going 19-6 overall with a 7-0 showing in conference play and earning the program's third-ever team appearance in the NCAA championships. A quintet of Aggies earned all-MW honors as Jean-Baptiste Badon, Xavier Calvelo and Roman each earned All-MW Singles honors while Jakub Medved and Dmitri Goubin earned All-MW Doubles recognitions playing alongisde Calvelo and Badon, respectively. USU won three matches in three days to also win the MW Tournament with Badon earning Tournament MVP honors, Calvelo, Venger and Eliot Nobel receiving all-tournament singles honors and the duos of Calvelo and Medved plus Venger and Nobel also receiving all-tournament doubles nods. Utah State climbed as high as 51st in the ITA Rankings, the program's highest ranking since the 2018 season. Originally from Romania, Bucur played for the Aggies from 2016-21 and ranks ninth all-time in Utah State program history with 102 total victories, also ranking second all-time with 57 dual-match singles victories. Bucur played part in USU’s Mountain West regular season and tournament champion teams in both 2017 and 2018. He is one of only three players in program history to earn three all-conference selections for singles play, being named to the All-MW Singles Team in 2018, 2020 and 2021. In 2017 as a freshman, Bucur tied the program record with 13 consecutive singles victories. On the international circuit, Bucur ranked in the top two in Romania across multiple junior age groups (10U, 12U, 14U, 16U, 18U), also ranking in the top 10 in Europe in the U14 and the top 60 among U16. He achieved a career-high ITF Junior ranking of 380 and reached as high as 1,129 in the world ATP rankings. Bucur has worked as a private tennis instructor since graduating from Utah State in 2021 with degrees in software engineering and social science & human services.