They are undefeated, No. 1 in the country, talented beyond
belief, and in for an extremely difficult four days.
They are the players of the UCLA men’s tennis team (9-0),
and they are in Louisville, Kentucky, this week for the USTA/ITA
National Team Indoor Championships.
UCLA is the No. 1 seed in the 16-team tournament, which boasts
13 of the top 16 preseason college tennis teams.
The tournament will provide a change of pace for the Bruins
““ a pace that will be markedly faster with the speedier
indoor courts at the Louisville Tennis Center.
“We go from outdoors, very slow courts, to indoors, just
rocket-fast,” head coach Billy Martin said. “All of a
sudden we’re going to have a one-week shocker.”
Some Bruins, however, won’t be shocked.
“Are you kidding me?” wondered Lassi Ketola about
the magnitude of the transition. “I’m from Finland; I
was born on indoor courts. I’ve been playing on them all
my life, so it’s not a problem.”
No. 12 Tobias Clemens was born in Germany, and Marcin Matkowski
is from Poland. They too have lots of indoor experience.
But other players, such as Chris Lam, Rodrigo Grilli, Erfan
Djahangiri and Alberto Francis, don’t have styles of play
that are best suited to playing indoors.
“Quite honestly, we’re a better slow-court team, so
(playing indoors) is not indicative of our best tennis,”
Martin said.
The road to the championship starts Thursday against No. 33 San
Diego State (2-3). With a win, the Bruins would face the
winner of Duke and Texas on Friday.
In the back of the Bruins’ minds, the Fighting Illini of
Illinois (7-0) loom on the other side of the bracket. As the
No. 2 team in the nation, Illinois has allowed only three points
all season.
But if history holds true, the National Team Indoor champions
will be from either Stanford or UCLA. One of these two schools
has won the championship each of the last 13 years. And since
the tournament’s inception in 1973, the Bruins have won seven
titles.
Even though the indoor venue doesn’t favor UCLA’s
style of play, the Bruins still talk like an undefeated team, not a
group with their backs against the wall.
“If everyone’s playing well, I don’t think
there’s a team that can beat us,” Lam said.
Matkowski concurred.
“It’s up to us how we do,” he said.