Before the match, there were the questions.
Would the Bruins play with the energy they lacked against
Virginia? Would they make an emphatic statement against
crosstown rival USC? Would Tobias Clemens avenge an earlier
loss to Prakash Amritraj? Would the team feed off the
television cameras?
After the match, the answer echoed within the walls of the Los
Angeles Tennis Center and across the Hill: “Yes!”
Any lingering questions about the UCLA men’s tennis team
were answered Friday, as the No. 3 Bruins (13-1, 1-0 Pac-10)
utterly demolished No. 17 USC (7-5, 0-1 Pac-10) before the largest
home crowd of the season, 7-0.
Attempting to improve upon a lackluster 4-3 victory over
Virginia last Wednesday, Friday’s theme for the Bruins was
energy.
“It was all about energy today for the whole team,”
Clemens said.
Head coach Billy Martin echoed his No. 1 player’s
sentiments.
“I think we went out there with a lot of energy and earned
it instead of thinking that we were going to be given it,” he
said. “That’s the way we’re going to have to
be. We’re a good team, but we’ve got to play well
and we’ve got to play with energy and go out there and still
earn it.”
The Bruins were given nothing Friday, but took everything.
UCLA got off to a good start, sweeping the doubles matches to
earn the doubles point.
At No. 1, Marcin Matkowski and Rodrigo Grilli beat Amritraj and
Johan Berg, 8-6. At No. 2, Clemens and Lassi Ketola were
victorious over Daniel Langre and Ruben Torres, 8-1. At No. 3,
Alberto Francis and Erfan Djahangiri took down Parker Collins and
Whit Livingston, 8-3.
And with that, the rout was on.
Matkowski, the nation’s No. 45 player, played phenomenally
at No. 2 singles, painting the lines and leaving No. 59 Berg no
margin for error. Matkowski won 6-2, 6-2.
“I was dominating the whole match,” he said
afterward.
The Bruins also got straight set victories from No. 64
Djahangiri and No. 87 Ketola; Djahangiri defeated Torres 6-3, 6-3,
and Ketola beat Livingston 6-2, 6-2.
Though Ketola’s victory clinched the match for the Bruins,
Clemens had some unfinished business with Amritraj on court
one.
Amritraj ““ the nation’s No. 36 player ““
handily beat No. 8 Clemens 6-4, 6-2 on Jan. 31 at USC in a 6-1
Bruin victory, Clemens’ first loss of the season.
Friday’s match looked like it would be much the
same. Amritraj came out, won his serve, and promptly broke
Clemens. Before long, it was 3-0 with Clemens reeling.
“I knew he couldn’t play like that the whole
match. Then he wouldn’t play college tennis,”
Clemens explained. “I just tried to hang in there and come up
with some good shots myself.”
Clemens clawed his way back, winning his serve and then breaking
Amritraj to get the match back on serve.
Just when it looked like the momentum had shifted, Amritraj
displayed his tennis brilliance to earn himself a triple break
point.
Though it appeared that Clemens was done for, he fought off
every break, won five straight points, and went on to win the set
6-4.
The second set was all Clemens, as he won 6-1. Amritraj was
broken on every one of his serves.
“A few calls went his way and then from there it kind of
steamrolled a little bit,” Amritraj said.
Even matches that the Trojans seemed to have in the pocket ended
up going the Bruins’ way on Friday.
Grilli came back to beat Langre, 2-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-2), while No.
26 Chris Lam fought hard in his match to register a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1
victory in the last match of the day.
With Lam’s win, the shutout was complete.
“7-0 against ‘SC. That’s big. You
can’t do any better than that,” he said.
The Bruins were caught by the cameras as well Friday; Fox Sports
Net tape-delayed the match on Sunday. All the Bruins looked
good, as the victory gave them a season sweep of the defending
national champion Trojans and a feeling of satisfaction.
Clemens summed it up best.
“We had great energy. We had great team spirit. The
crowd was great. It was just a fine day of tennis.”