There aren’t too many tennis players in this country who
can say they have defeated Tobias Clemens.
There are fewer still who have defeated him more than once.
But there’s something about Stanford’s Sam Warburg
that has given Clemens fits this season. The Cardinal junior
recently sent the Bruin All-American to straight-set losses on
separate occasions just two weeks apart.
The latest dominating performance from Warburg came last Friday
in Palo Alto, where he won 6-2, 6-4. Â
“I played a really good match, but he played even
better,” Clemens said. “When he plays like that,
he’s at least top-100 in the world.”
UCLA coach Billy Martin admitted Clemens played a good match
Friday, but Martin thinks his No. 1 player might need to do
something different if he were to see Warburg again.
“It’s match-ups so much in tennis,” Martin
said. “The way Toby likes to play is not the right way to
play against Sam Warburg. It plays right into his
strength.”
Martin feels that Clemens needs to lay off the urge to simply
try to bang with Warburg from the baseline. The Bruin coach thinks
Warburg is simply too strong in that regard.
“Toby’s been a little stubborn, in not believing
that he needs to change his game in order to play Sam,”
Martin said.
But Clemens respectfully disagrees, saying he will continue to
play his style regardless.
“If I play really well, I can beat any player with my
style of game,” Clemens said. “I am not going to change
anything.”
Clemens has already defeated some of the best players in the
nation this season, including top-10 ranked Benedikt Dorsch of
Baylor, Catalin Gard of Mississippi, and Phillip King of Duke.
But Martin observed that Warburg’s style is a bit
different. He plays an aggressive power game, where he goes for a
lot of winners. Martin said even the best players have to alter
their style of play every once in a while.
And if Clemens were to try to play the same style against
Warburg one more time?
“To me, that’s not being smart,” Martin
said.
PAC-10 CHAMPS: With a win Saturday against
California and USC’s loss to Stanford coming that same day,
UCLA earned a share of the conference title.
As far as the title goes, the Bruins are especially happy for
what it doesn’t mean ““ the Trojans don’t own the
championship outright.
“Quite honestly, it’s probably more fun not letting
USC win it by themselves,” Martin said. “There are
times when I still don’t like the fact that we’re
co-champions, but I’ll take it.”
“I’m happy to see USC going down,” junior Kris
Kwinta added.
UCLA split its matches with the Trojans this season. The Bruins
won a 4-3 thriller at home and lost by the same score on the road.
But only the road match counted in the Pac-10 standings, so each
team finished with a 6-1 conference mark.
DOMINATION: No Bruin has been more dominating
recently than freshman Philipp Gruendler. Playing at No. 6,
Gruendler has registered straight-set victories in all six of his
matches at the position. Only once has his opponent garnered more
than two games in a single set only.
After moving from No. 5 to No. 6, Gruendler has been the first
Bruin to finish his singles play in every match.
“Stanford was a lot of fun, because the guy played good
tennis, but he wasn’t good enough to beat me,”
Gruendler said of his 6-1, 6-2 victory over Chris Rasmussen.
“And the guy from Cal, he was just a bunny.”
RANKINGS WATCH: UCLA moved up to No. 3 in the
Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings, which were released
Tuesday. The Bruins jumped over USC, now ranked No. 4.
Clemens dropped from No. 6 to No. 8 in the singles rankings.
Other Bruin singles players in the top-100 are Alberto Francis
(No. 56), Luben Pampoulov (No. 68), Chris Lam (No. 72), Kwinta (No.
85), and Gruendler (No. 99).