Though it’s been a while, they haven’t forgotten how
to win.
After a two-week hiatus from competition, the No. 4 UCLA
men’s tennis team returned to its winning ways over the
weekend, downing Arizona 5-2 and Arizona State 6-1 to improve its
record to 16-1, 3-0 Pac-10.
These wins came in the altitude, heat, and wind of the
desert.
“Friday’s match was so doggone windy,” head
coach Billy Martin said. “It’s always fairly tough for
us.”
The wind-blown match against Arizona (5-7, 0-1 Pac-10) saw an
uncharacteristic occurrence: UCLA lost the doubles point for only
the second time all season.
“Doubles was horrible on Friday,” Martin said.
UCLA entered singles play trailing the Wildcats and the Bruins
were forced to come up with some clutch individual
performances.
Not only were they clutch, they were emphatic: five of the six
Bruin players posted straight set victories.
No. 9 Tobias Clemens defeated Arizona’s Whi Kim 7-5, 6-3
at No. 1 singles.
No. 41 Marcin Matkowski beat Carl Hagman 6-3, 6-2 at No. 2. No.
40 Erfan Djahangiri won 6-3, 6-0 against Arizona’s Paul
Warkentin at No. 3. There were similar results at No. 4 and No. 5
singles, as No. 93 Rodrigo Grilli posted a 6-3, 7-5 victory over
Roger Matalonga and No. 44 Chris Lam defeated Colin O’Grady
6-3, 6-2.
The only anomaly in singles was Lassi Ketola’s performance
at No. 6, as he was defeated 6-2, 6-1 by Arizona’s Daniel
Andrus.
Ketola was likely rusty, since he spent finals week studying for
his five tests rather than practicing.
“He’s working very hard in school,” Martin
explained.
Saturday’s match with Arizona State (6-9, 2-1 Pac-10) was
typical Bruin tennis.
“Saturday was much better than Friday,” Martin said.
“We looked much better.”
UCLA won all three doubles matches and five of the six singles
matches in straight sets. There was, however, one more anomaly.
Djahangiri, previously 13-0 in dual match play, was upset at No. 3
by Chris Letcher, 6-4, 7-6(7).
“In his four years, that’s been the place he’s
never played well,” Martin said. “He’s always
struggled down there.”
In other action Saturday, Clemens beat Pim Van Mele 7-5, 6-2,
Matkowski defeated Chris Stewart 7-5, 6-1, Grilli won 6-3, 7-6(4)
against Olivier Charroin, Lam posted a 7-5, 6-3(3) victory over
Ryan McBride and Alberto Francis stepped up at No. 6 to destroy
Ryan Eveloff, 6-2, 6-1.
The Bruins will take the momentum of five straight victories to
Northern California this coming weekend, as they square off against
Cal on Friday and Stanford on Saturday.