A roller coaster weekend ended on a high for the No. 3 UCLA
men’s tennis team. After being upset by No. 5 Stanford, 4-3
Friday ““ a loss that ended the Bruins’ hopes of a
Pac-10 title ““ the team responded Saturday with a dominating
6-1 victory over No. 4 Cal.
The weekend performances left a funny taste in head coach Billy
Martin’s mouth.
“It’s a little bit bittersweet,” he said.
These performances were somewhat unexpected, considering past
history. In its last meeting with Stanford, UCLA (20-3, 6-1 Pac-10)
won easily, 5-2, without Marcin Matkowski, the team’s No. 2
singles player. And UCLA had lost its last three meetings to Cal,
including a 5-2 setback earlier this season. All signs pointed to
an easy victory at home against Stanford, and a real struggle
against Cal.
Well, the signs were wrong.
Friday’s match had an electric atmosphere. In the most
storied rivalry of college tennis, two top-five teams battled it
out to the bitter end.
At one point, however, it didn’t look like it would even
be close. Stanford (21-3, 7-0 Pac-10) came out fired up and won
every doubles match to take the doubles point. The nation’s
No. 2 doubles team, comprised of Stanford seniors David Martin and
Scott Lipsky, easily disposed of Matkowski and Rodrigo Grilli, the
nation’s No. 22 team, 8-4.
With the doubles point in hand, Stanford carried momentum into
singles play and took two quick matches from the Bruin senior
co-captains.
Grilli was defeated, 6-2, 6-1, by K.C. Corkery at No. 3 singles
and Erfan Djahangiri was taken down, 6-4, 6-1, by James Pade at No.
5. These poor performances were very disheartening, especially
considering that they came from two senior leaders.
“We were horrible in No. 3 and No. 5 singles,”
Martin said. “I don’t know what the hell to think about
that.
“That was a very poor effort ““ for seniors
especially. We can’t have them going out there and not
showing up to play. I don’t mind losing, but it’s how
you lose.”
Though it would’ve been easy, capitulation wasn’t an
option for the rest of the team. Tobias Clemens, No. 5 in the
nation, beat No. 12 David Martin, 6-3, 6-4, to get the Bruins on
the board. Matkowski and Lassi Ketola also fought hard in their
matches to secure three-set victories.
“I think it gives us a little credibility that we
fought,” Martin said. “We didn’t roll over and
die.”
The attention then turned to court No. 4, where Chris Lam was
facing Sam Warburg in a three-set pressure-cooker. Hundreds crowded
the bleachers and the stairs of the Los Angeles Tennis Center to
see Warburg take a tough 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 victory to secure the match
for his team.
“I love the pressure,” Warburg said.
“That’s why you play tennis, for matches like
that.”
The 4-3 battle was one of the closest matches in the history of
the storied rivalry.
“It was a typical Stanford-UCLA tennis match,”
Stanford coach Dick Gould said. “The momentum kept changing
back and forth, back and forth.
Everyone battled, and that was the beauty of the match. It was
great.”
Though the end result wasn’t what the Bruins had expected,
the way they battled seemed to give them confidence for
Saturday’s match against Cal (18-4, 4-2 Pac-10).
The Bruins began the match with the intensity they had lacked
the previous day, and they never looked back.
After Matkowski and Grilli secured the doubles point with a
hard-fought 9-8(5) victory over John Paul Fruttero and Patrick
Briaud at No. 1 doubles, the Bruins seemed poised for
domination.
In their last regular season match of their UCLA careers, Grilli
and Djahangiri answered Martin’s call. They were again the
first players done in singles, but on Saturday they emerged
victorious. Grilli beat Or Dekel, 6-3, 7-5 at No. 3, and Djahangiri
beat Balazc Veress, 6-2, 6-4 at No. 5.
“I was really happy for Rodrigo,” Martin said.
“He played a really solid match after playing probably the
worst match of his UCLA career. He pulled himself together and came
back. That’s really the sign of a great
competitor.”
Completing the senior sweep was Lassi Ketola, who came back to
win his last regular season match, a 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(4) victory over
Wayne Wong.
Rounding out the Bruin scoring, Matkowski posted a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2
over Conor Niland and Clemens downed Fruttero, 6-3, 6-2.
The win gave Clemens his 10th straight victory and improved his
dual-match record to 18-2.
“I don’t know what’s happening with me,”
Clemens said. “I don’t lose anymore. I just hope I can
keep it that way.”
With a 6-1 record, the Bruins finish second in the Pac-10. That,
however, isn’t weighing too heavily on their minds.
“Pac-10 doesn’t mean anything,” Djahangiri
said. “We wanted to win, of course, but the goal is the
NCAAs.”
“I’d give up the Pac-10 championship for the next 20
years if we could win the NCAAs,” Martin said.
Some of the Bruin players will be heading to Ojai next weekend
for the Pac-10 singles and doubles championships.
Otherwise, the real test begins May 10 with the NCAA
Regionals.