For UCLA men’s tennis, a team that plays year-round in the
Southern California sun, playing indoors on faster indoor courts
will always be a challenge. So going up against No. 2 and
undefeated Georgia in Saturday’s quarterfinals of the
USTA/ITA National Team Indoors didn’t make anything easier.
The Bruins lost the match 4-3 but ended the weekend on a good note
by winning the final consolation game by a 4-1 margin against host
school Washington on Sunday. “The entire team gave 110
percent this weekend,” coach Billy Martin said. “I am
pretty happy and proud.” UCLA started off the weekend by
defeating No. 10 Louisiana State 4-2 in the first round Friday. The
Bruins won all the double matches and went on to win four of the
six singles as well. “I’m glad they claimed the meet as
over after four games,” Martin said. “It saves us time
and energy as a lot of tennis is played throughout the
weekend.” The Bruins then faced No. 2 Georgia in the
quarterfinals in a matchup that had been anticipated once the
brackets were announced. Georgia started the match claiming the
doubles point by defeating the UCLA No. 2 and No. 3 pairs 8-4 and
8-3, respectively and then won three of the six singles matches to
capture the victory. “They are the favorites this
year,” Martin said of the Bulldogs. “I thought so
before and now that I have seen them play, I know for sure.”
The Bruins were down 3-1 before junior Benjamin Kohlloeffel brought
hope of victory back by defeating Georgia’s No. 1 singles
player Luis Flores 6-4 6-4. Sophomore Mathieu Dehaine came back
from two match points against him in the second set to bring UCLA
its third point on a score of 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-3. With both teams
tied at three points on the scoreboard, it came down to redshirt
junior Chris Surapol to decide on the meet’s outcome.
Surapol, who was undefeated at 7-0 prior to the weekend, looked
like he had a chance to give the Bruins the victory when he won the
first set 6-4, but Georgia’s Strahinja Bobusic came back to
win the last two sets and won the last point for the Bulldogs 4-6,
7-5, 6-0. “Bobusic played an incredible third set,”
Martin said. “There is not much Chris could have done.”
After their disappointing loss to Georgia, the Bruins then faced
Washington on Sunday night as the No. 12 Huskies had fallen to
Illinois in the quarterfinals. UCLA settled the match early on as a
4-1 win meant that Dehaine and Surapol did not need to finish their
matches. The final of the tournament on Monday saw Georgia defeat
Pepperdine 4-0, two teams who had to battle in deciding matches to
defeat UCLA 4-3 in the past two weeks. “It shows that we can
be right there with the best teams,” Martin said. “This
tournament gave experience to the team, which will serve us a lot
next year.”
DREAN SICK: Sophomore Jeremy Drean had been ill
for a few days and was unable to compete against San Diego State
last Tuesday. Drean stayed in Los Angeles while the team competed
in Seattle. He has since been back at practice and should be with
the team Friday when the Bruins face Arizona on campus.