In the midst of a grueling season, the UCLA men’s tennis team will get an opportunity to take a breather from dual match play and the pressure associated with it. Instead, the team will be heading to the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships in La Jolla, Calif. this weekend.
The event itself does not count toward the No. 3 Bruins’ regular season record. As a result, the Bruins are viewing this as an opportunity to get in some doubles matches without the pressure that accompanies their typical regular season matches.
“I love La Jolla. … I would say it’s one of the most fun events for our team. Probably as fun a resort (as any), tennis-wise. And to combine it with some good doubles competition, not the pressure of winning or losing team matches, I guess it’s a good sort of breather for us,” said coach Billy Martin.
The Bruins (11-1), will have five teams competing in the 64-team draw: third-seeded Marcos Giron/Dennis Novikov, fourth-seeded Alex Brigham/Clay Thompson, Seth Stolar/Ryoto Tachi, ninth-seeded Adrien Puget/Karue Sell and Evan Lee/Maxime Tabatroung.
Redshirt freshman Karue Sell sees this as a good opportunity for the Bruins to be able to try a few different things with their doubles game, without the pressure of having to play dual matches.
“I think we’re going to try to change our game a little bit, try some new things. Especially since it is not a dual match, we can try to practice some new plays a little bit, stuff like that,” Sell said. “It’s definitely not a normal week for us in terms of playing.”
UCLA men’s tennis resumes regular match play at home against Hawai’i on Wednesday, before a road match against Baylor on the March 10.
Because of the nature of this weekend’s tournament, in that competing schools are not winning or losing matches as a team, the focus is more on the individual successes of the doubles teams themselves.
“This tournament is a little more relaxed, it’s fun, we play right next to the beach. It’s a really calming atmosphere,” said sophomore Dennis Mkrtchian. “It’s great to win a few, but it’s a relaxing way to get away from all of the high-energy matches.”