Not only did Tobias Clemens know exactly how he felt when his
Bruins defeated USC, 4-3, on Friday, but he had a pretty good idea
about how the UCLA Athletic Department felt as well.
“I know tennis is not the biggest sport at UCLA, but I
think even the Athletic Department needed this win,” he
said.
“We need to beat USC in every sport that we
can.”
Listening to him discuss the disappointment of last
Wednesday’s basketball loss to USC, as well as the football
team’s inability to beat the Trojans the past five years, it
became painfully clear that Clemens wanted to win this one for his
university.
And he certainly did his part by cruising to victories in
singles and doubles at the Los Angeles Tennis Center, leading the
No. 6 Bruins (3-0) vocally and by example, and once again emerging
as a winner.
It was the senior All-American’s fifth-consecutive victory
over USC (2-1).
“You don’t understand how happy I am,” he
said. “I feel so close to the university now, being in my
fourth year. I needed this win as much as everybody else. It was
just a great feeling.”
Heading into the match, there were questions about how this
relatively unproven UCLA team, a squad returning only two starters
from last season, would handle the pressures of a rivalry
match.
If doubles play was any indication, they handled it just fine.
Clemens teamed with Chris Lam to dispatch Parker Collins and Daniel
Langre, 8-1, at No. 2 doubles, and Philipp Gruendler and Aaron
Yovan secured the doubles point with a dominating 8-3 victory over
Drew Hoskins and Daniel Wright at No. 3.
“We knew we had our work cut out for us, but doubles was
huge,” said coach Billy Martin.
The match, however, was far from over. The No. 19 Trojans
battled, forcing some newcomers to step up to secure a UCLA
victory.
No. 12-ranked Clemens was solid as usual, defeating Swede Johan
Berg, 6-1, 6-4, in an exciting match on court No. 1.
After putting up little resistance to Clemens’ barrage in
the first set, Berg found himself up a break, leading 4-1 in the
second.
But something suddenly seemed to click inside Clemens, who had
been visibly frustrated in previous games, making silly unforced
errors and cursing the fuzziness of the tennis balls.
“Maybe I was looking a little bit too much at the
scoreboard and not taking it that seriously,” he said.
“I felt like I should have been leading 4-1, because I had
made some easy mistakes.”
Clemens evidently began taking things seriously, as he won his
serve and promptly broke Berg, who had been serving up 30-0.
The Bruin senior went on to earn another break and serve out the
match with a pair of aces.
“An ace is always the best feeling for a tennis
player,” he said.
That, and knowing your teammates are fighting to the end.
After losing the opening set 6-0, freshman Gruendler played
inspired tennis in his first match against USC, fighting back to
defeat Langre, 0-6, 6-2, 6-3. Afterward, he recognized the
magnitude of his victory.
“If I had lost my match, we probably would have
lost,” Gruendler said.
Gruendler and Clemens’ victories gave the Bruins three
points, but that ever-important fourth point would prove quite
difficult to come by.
Lam found himself engaged in a war with freshman Jamil Al-Agba
on court No. 2, and junior Kris Kwinta was playing an incredibly
close match against Adriano Biasella on court No. 4. Both Bruin
players ended up falling to their opponents.
That left it up to junior Alberto Francis, who was facing
Hoskins in his first singles match against the Trojans.
After winning the first set and dropping the second, tensions
were high in the third ““ especially with the outcome of the
entire match likely based upon the victor on court No. 3.
Luckily for Francis, he didn’t know exactly what he was
playing for in terms of the team scenario, and he was able to pull
out a 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 win.
“I didn’t even know I clinched the match until coach
told me,” he said. “It was probably better that
way.”
Prior to this season, Francis saw very limited time in the
singles rotation, making his presence felt only in doubles.
Now he is being expected to fill the No. 3 role, a role that
last year belonged to good friend and former roommate Rodrigo
Grilli.
“I’m taking over his place,” Francis said.
Martin is just pleased everyone seems to be finding his place,
something he wasn’t sure would happen until later in the
season.
“It looked like we competed well at every position,”
Martin said. “There weren’t some guys who were just
discouraged and threw in the towel. That really helps when
you’re looking up at the scoreboard.
“It was a heck of a good team effort today, all the way
down the line.”
And then there’s that little thing about beating USC.
Martin said he had taken his son’s friend to the basketball
game Wednesday night. The friend happened to be from a Trojan
family.
“I’ve been hearing junk since then,” Martin
said. “If we had gone down, man, it would’ve been
tough.”