UCLA men’s tennis coach Billy Martin has been to the Bay
Area plenty of times, so it’s not fair to call it uncharted
territory.
He just hasn’t charted it in February.
For 30 years, UCLA has faced Stanford during the first and third
weekends of April. This clash of the two most successful programs
in the history of men’s college tennis happened like
clockwork.
But with the No. 4 Bruins (3-0) set to visit No. 17 California
(2-0) on Friday and No. 12 Stanford (1-0) on Saturday, it’s
clear that tradition has changed.
“The other schools (in the Pac-10) finally just put up
such a fuss,” Martin said. “They thought it
wasn’t fair, and maybe it wasn’t.”
Stanford and Cal made an early-season visit to Los Angeles last
season, but Martin’s Bruins have never had to face these
formidable conference foes at such an early juncture.
Considering UCLA has four new faces in its six-man starting
lineup, Martin is curious to see how his players will react to the
pressure of playing two very difficult matches on the road so early
on.
“I’m ready, but I don’t know if that means
anything,” Martin said. “We’ll see how they hold
up. You never know.”
For the two Bruins who return to the starting lineup from last
season’s national championship squad, juniors Ben Kohlloeffel
and Philipp Gruendler, the team’s success isn’t such a
primary concern right now.
There is still too much tennis to be played this season to be
worrying about the results of dual matches.
“I want to see how I perform,” Gruendler said.
“That’s the way everyone is thinking. Right now, of
course, I want the team to win. But I want to get a feel for my
game.”
Gruendler also wants to exact some revenge. UCLA has lost at Cal
in two of the last three seasons, including a 4-3 defeat last
April. That loss, which saw Gruendler lose in straight sets at the
No. 6 spot, came after the Bruins had defeated the Bears 7-0 in
Westwood in February.
“It was just depressing,” Gruendler said.
As far as the Cardinal goes, the Bruins seem to have solved
Stanford’s home-court advantage, winning in Palo Alto the
last three seasons.
But by no means do they expect it to be easy.
“It’s always hard, especially at the beginning of
the year,” Kohlloeffel said. “It’s even a tough
trip at the end of March or the beginning of April.”
Each venue this weekend will present a different challenge to
the Bruins.
Stanford’s Taube Family Tennis Center is a huge venue and
will host the men’s and women’s NCAA Championships this
season. Martin said the match at Stanford always features some
rowdy Stanford fraternity guys.
Cal, on the other hand, has a much less inspiring tennis
facility. The weather, however, presents the primary challenge to
opponents, as Martin said the match in Berkeley is almost always
windy.
“The team might be tougher at Stanford, but the conditions
are more difficult at Cal, so it kind of evens out,” Martin
said.