Luben Pampoulov really is taking one for the team. And though he
wants to rest, he’ll take it for one more day.
Plagued by a pinched nerve in his neck for the better part of a
month, UCLA’s No. 1 men’s tennis player has played
through his injury, competing at the National Team Indoors several
weeks ago and facing off against Stanford and California last
weekend.
He will continue to play through the pain today when the Bruins
battle USC, but the injury will undoubtedly bother him.
“I don’t really want to play, but for the team I
will,” Pampoulov said. “It’s not like I
absolutely cannot play, but it’s like a handicap.”
The same injury was a slight problem for Pampoulov last year,
but it wasn’t nearly as painful then as it has been this
season. Pampoulov had to retire in his match earlier in the season
against San Diego because of the injury, and he didn’t play
in the team’s only loss to Virginia for the same reason.
“I’m injured, and I’m in a lot of pain every
match,” Pampoulov said. “In doubles it’s kind of
okay, but in singles it hurts almost every point, and on my serve
especially.”
It is a true testament to his talents as a player that a
handicapped Pampoulov has still been better than almost everyone
he’s played. A day after sitting out against Virginia,
Pampoulov defeated Hamid Mirzadeh of Florida in straight sets. On
Saturday, the 12th-ranked Bruin senior easily dispatched
16th-ranked Conor Niland of Cal in straight sets.
“It’s just a handicap,” Pampoulov said.
“You always have pain; you have it in your head. It always
affects you.”
Both Pampoulov and UCLA coach Billy Martin agree that the best
way to deal with the injury is to give Pampoulov some rest, several
weeks where he won’t be asked to play matches. Unfortunately,
the team has had a number of tough challenges lately, and Pampoulov
has been in the lineup.
“What I think we (will) do is give him a full week off,
seven or 10 days, and then build him up gradually instead of all of
a sudden throwing him into a match situation where he’s
having to play at a very high level for three or four hours,”
Martin said. “That’s never going to help an
injury.”
The injury certainly hasn’t been helped by the string of
tough matches, even though Pampoulov has been working with trainers
and doctors to improve his situation. He clearly doesn’t
enjoy the pain, but he also feels a sense of responsibility to his
team.
“I think I need a break, but it’s going to happen
after USC,” he said.
Martin has clearly been encouraging his top player to be in the
lineup, especially the day after the team lost to Virginia in the
Indoors. To avoid a substantial plummet in the national rankings,
Martin felt that Pampoulov needed to be in the lineup for UCLA to
have a chance against Florida.
The Bruin coach also felt like Pampoulov was needed against
Stanford and Cal, and again today against USC. But following
today’s match, the senior will get a well-deserved break.
Martin has already pulled Pampoulov out of the weekend’s
Pacific Coast Doubles tournament in La Jolla, and he very likely
won’t play the following weekend against the Arizona
schools.
“It’s a weakness that he not only has to have it
heal a little bit, but he has to strengthen it, too,” Martin
said. “It’s hard to do that when you’re playing
under this kind of stress.”