It wasn’t the greatest of weekends for the UCLA
men’s tennis team at the Pac-10 Championships.
There were some good moments, there were some bad moments, but
unlike the past two seasons, there was no crowning moment.
Entering this year’s conference championships at the Ojai
Invitational in Ojai, a Bruin had brought home the singles
championship in each of the last two seasons.
This year, it wasn’t meant to be.
Chris Lam made the deepest run of any Bruin, advancing to the
semifinals, but there he fell in straight sets to eventual champion
Sam Warburg of Stanford.
However, all was not lost.
“It turned out to be okay,” UCLA coach Billy Martin
said. “There were some great highlights and some real
lowlights.”
Among the great highlights were Luben Pampoulov and Philipp
Gruendler teaming to win the Pac-10 doubles championships, and
Chris Surapol making an undefeated run through the Pac-10
invitational bracket to capture the invitational title.
“That was a big win for Chris,” Martin said.
Surapol battled back to defeat Carter Morris of Stanford, 4-6,
6-3, 6-4, in Sunday’s final.
On the doubles side, Pampoulov and Gruendler likely secured
themselves a place in the NCAA doubles tournament with a 8-5 win
over Stanford’s K.C. Corkery and James Pade in Sunday’s
final.
But then there were the lowlights.
Pampoulov played uninspired tennis in the singles portion of the
tournament, bowing out in the second round to Manuel Kost of
Oregon, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.
“Luben didn’t really look good,” Martin
said.
Neither did Kris Kwinta, for that matter.
The UCLA junior made quick exits in both singles and doubles,
losing to California’s Patrick Briaud in straight sets in the
first round of the singles, and teaming with Alberto Francis to
make a first round doubles exit as well. It was a disappointing
loss for the tournament’s top-seeded doubles team.
“Some guys just weren’t really up for it,”
Martin said. “They were really lacking motivation.”
Francis won two tough matches in singles, while Gruendler and
Aaron Yovan made the semifinals of the invitational singles
draw.
Tobias Clemens did not play in the Pac-10 Championships,
choosing instead to remain in Westwood and practice by himself.