During his time at UCLA, Philipp Gruendler has been in many circumstances that have helped shape the person, and tennis player, that he has come to be at the end of his senior year.
As a freshman, he was thrown into a situation where he was very naive and unaware of what to expect.
“When I came in my freshman year, I had no idea what was going on,” he recalled. “None at all. I didn’t know what college tennis was about. I didn’t know about the spirit. The only thing I knew was that there were combined academic and athletic programs in America.”
Going through high school in Germany, Gruendler had never experienced being in an actual team atmosphere, as his school, Kaufmännische Schule Lörrach, only put together a team to play matches about once a month.
Practices for the team were minimal and rare, and much of the Gruendler’s match experience came from playing in tournaments.
So it came as no surprise, then, that the rigorous practices that he would face at UCLA, along with the shift from playing on clay courts to hard courts, would have an impact on his body and his game.
Dealing with injuries
The daily practices that Gruendler underwent upon his arrival in Los Angeles were a far cry from what he had grown up doing.
The effects quickly became apparent as Gruendler began having problems with his elbow during his freshman season.
“It’s frustrating because you never, ever have a chance to heal and try to cure your injuries,” Gruendler said. “Sometimes I seriously have the feeling during the season, the main goal is not to get healthy; the main goal is staying in playing shape. And that’s just not my philosophy.”
Regardless, it was one that he stuck to for his first three years on the team, during which he was constantly plagued by minor injuries. It wasn’t until the current season, that he decided he wasn’t able to take the beating and go through the pain so frequently.
“I made many mistakes last year by not telling the coaches how I feel because of the pressure I felt of having to compete, wanting to win, wanting to improve, and wanting to show what kind of player I am,” Gruendler said.
“And this year, I really don’t care what other people think. I have to be ready to play, and if I’m not ready to play I’ll tell coach that it’s better to put someone else in to play.”
In order to avoid getting as severe an injury this season as he has in the past few years, Gruendler chose to spend the fall training on his own in Germany before finally returning to join the team after they had finished their fall season play.
For him, the decision was an easy one, but one that would quickly change as he decided to come back to California in November but continue to practice on his own at his own pace before the dual-match season kicked off.
Though both coach Billy Martin and assistant coach Jason Sher were hesitant to leave Gruendler out of the singles lineup and would have rather had him play with his nagging injuries in the early portion of the season, Martin came to realize that his senior’s mentality was one that was based heavily on his striving for perfection.
“He’s probably much more critical then he needs to be of himself,” Martin said of Gruendler. “He is a perfectionist, which, in our sport, is hard because nobody has ever played a perfect match in the history of our sport.
“If he feels like something’s really nagging him and there’s no way that he can play 100 percent, it really bothers him,” Martin added.
In fact, Gruendler is a strong believer that regardless of how well he plays, nothing can ever be accomplished without him putting in complete effort, and if he does so, it is still possible to win ““ his ideal example being the 2005 national championship run that he was an integral part of.
The year of the title
After a freshman year spent learning, Gruendler entered his sophomore year ready to make decisions on his own as well as his own judgments.
He was surrounded with teammates who, like him, knew very well that the Bruin squad was very talented up and down the lineup. Benjamin Kohlloeffel, a fellow native of Germany, had just sat out the last season due to eligibility concerns, but joined the team his sophomore year as the Bruins sought to capture a national title.
“You could just feel that this team was the one that could have the chance to win it,” Gruendler said. “Even with some losses throughout the season, it may have kicked us back in the rankings, but it never kicked us back from our common goal we had throughout the season.”
As UCLA entered the NCAA Championships, the team began to gel and whenever one player would struggle, another would pick up the slack, and they slowly got closer and closer to reaching a title that had been elusive since 1984.
The Bruins went on to capture that title by beating Baylor, the team that had beaten them just a year before when Gruendler was a freshman.
“For me, that’s the perfect example of not playing the best tennis, but competing with 100 percent and with heart,” Gruendler said. “And in the end, it doesn’t matter how you played; you ended up winning it and that’s what the season was all about. It was just amazing.”
Doubles specialist
The 2005 season was the first in which Gruendler teamed with Kohlloeffel in doubles to form the Bruins’ No. 2 tandem. The pairing blossomed tremendously over the years, although it went through its expected bumpy road at the onset.
“We needed time to get used to each other,” Gruendler said. “We played well, but it was rusty.”
The time spent playing together during their sophomore season undoubtedly set the stage for the level to which they would rise just one year later, as they posted a perfect record throughout much of the year and finished the regular season ranked as the No. 1 doubles team in the nation.
Though they did not compete in the NCAA Doubles Championships at year’s end due to Kohlloeffel’s focus on capturing the NCAA singles title, the German duo have teamed together again this season and are on pace to accomplish what they did last season, as they are a perfect 21-0 thus far and rank No. 12 nationally.
“They really have been the Rock of Gibraltar,” Martin said of his top team.
“That No. 1 doubles spot has almost always been guaranteed for the last two years,” Sher added.
With Gruendler as the top doubles player on the team in Martin’s opinion, and Kohlloeffel having proven himself to be the top collegiate player in the nation, it comes as no surprise that the pair has seen such great success together.
Additionally, the two play a very similar style of doubles game as they try to force their opponents to make the mistake while the opponents search for any weaknesses that the Bruin team may have ““ seldom are such weaknesses found.
“The point doesn’t start with the return; the return is something you have to get in first,” Gruendler said. “Generally we try to get the ball in. I need someone who really plays with that philosophy.”
Having complete trust and faith in one another has also helped the two reach the level that they have with what appears to be great ease.
Though Kohlloeffel plays what Gruendler considers to be the bigger points on the Ad-court (left side), he plays the Deuce-court (right side), which Martin feels is the harder side to return.
“There’s nobody else I would have that much confidence in, playing the break points and the big points in tie-breakers,” Gruendler said of Kohlloeffel. “He’s probably 100 percent confident in me, as I am in him.”
But in order to get to those big points, Kohlloeffel relies on his partner to help set him up to win the big points.
“It’s not just me on those points,” Kohlloeffel said. “He still has to play strong at the net and help get the points throughout the game, even if it is served to me during the break point.”
Their mutual respect and confidence in one another has made the journey to the top of the ranks a smooth one, and one that the two have grown together on as a single entity.
“I think there’s a really good mutual respect,” Martin said. “That really puts you at peace when you’re not worried about your partner. When you worry about yourself and what your partner is doing, it makes it much harder.”
Nearing the end
Though Gruendler is reaching the end of what has become a memorable experience for him at UCLA, he has become friends with people whom he would’ve never expected to meet, and has enjoyed his time as a Bruin.
During his freshman season, he was introduced to “The Young and the Restless” star actor Eric Braeden, by then-teammate Tobias Clemens, and over the course of his stay in Los Angeles, Gruendler has become close to the fellow German native.
Braeden, who plays Victor on the television show and appeared in the 1997 movie “Titanic,” has become somewhat of a father figure for the Bruin. Gruendler knows he can go to him anytime he needs help, regardless of the matter.
“He’s such a smart guy and unbelievably sophisticated,” Gruendler said. “I know if I have a problem I can go and talk to him. Even if it’s something about my political science classes, I know I can ask him for some pointers.”
But whether it is the occasional breakfast with Braeden, or spending time at his apartment with several of his teammates, Gruendler has made sure to soak in his experience and make the most of it, while still growing as a tennis player.
“It’s been a great time, an unforgettable time,” Gruendler said. “I’ve definitely learned a lot of things.”