Men’s Tennis:
A Second Chance

After last year’s 4-3 loss in the finals, UCLA men’s tennis begins NCAA team championship play Friday in Athens, Ga., looking for another chance at the national title. This week, Daily Bruin dives into the stories of three key players on the team who are also riding on a second chance.

• Clay Thompson
• Marcos Giron
• Adrien Puget

By Emilio Ronquillo

The 2013 national championship rested in Adrien Puget’s hands.

At match point, Puget served and advanced to net after hitting one return, then delivered a low back-handed volley that University of Virginia’s Mitchell Frank lobbed just past Puget’s baseline.

Some Bruins yelled out, and a few began to rush the court.

In their minds, they were national champions.

But an instant before the ball left Frank’s racket on his doomed lob, the line judge called something out. In the process of delivering the winning shot, Puget’s shoe grazed the net.

Virginia won the point.

Puget, then-No. 3 player in the lineup, dabbed his face with a towel, the game at deuce. Serving with a 5-3 third set lead, the junior could not wipe clean from his mind what became his only match point.

Puget chased quick points rather than staying in rallies and came up empty handed on most. He lost four consecutive games, handing Virginia the title when he knocked one more ball out of bounds. As Frank’s teammates piled on top of him, Puget made his way over to the bench on Virginia’s side and sat down. He would not exchange any words with Frank.

Puget slept little the night of his loss in late May. He played in the singles’ portion of NCAA championships the next day, but the draining path to that point took its toll. He lost in three sets to a player that, much to his chagrin, played very similarly to Frank.

“I was just playing because I had to play,” Puget said. “I didn’t want to play. I wasn’t enjoying it. I didn’t have that fighting spirit anymore.”

Puget did not want to touch a racket for the next four weeks and had played his last NCAA point for 10 months.

A year later, he would emerge as the missing piece in UCLA’s quest to redeem its lost championship.

***

Puget returned to his native France that summer and immersed himself in a tennis world removed from his NCAA loss.

As he competed in close to a dozen tournaments, Puget experienced an increasing degree of pain in his right knee. He admitted to pushing himself too hard in training and competing, playing through what became a “terrible” feeling that occasionally took on a stabbing sensation.

Anti-inflammatory medication helped, though even five minutes of sitting down with his legs bent eventually hurt. He underwent surgery in September to repair a 15-millimeter tear on his right patellar tendon.

Faced with three sedentary months in France and unable to play with his UCLA teammates in the fall, Puget picked up his racket within six weeks of surgery, sat on a bench and began rallying with a wall.

Since returning to Westwood in January, Puget has worked with trainer Tandi Hawkey on most days to regain flexibility and strength in his lower body.

“When he’s doing that high level of strength training, his body adapts probably quicker than some people,” Hawkey said. “If you asked me in January if he would be where he is right now, I’d probably would’ve said that’s optimistic.”

When Puget returned to UCLA practices in January, fellow Bruins felt the atmosphere change within the team, even if Puget initially spent much of his time isolated from them.

“He’s one of the most intense guys I’ve ever played,” freshman Gage Brymer said.

“He doesn’t let up, winning or losing or in a practice match. He’s always there, always focused, which is really rare.”

Puget’s competitive appetite was not satiated in the winter. He missed the early March return, which Hawkey deemed overly optimistic, that he set for himself after undergoing surgery.

Participating in UCLA’s 4-3 defeat of Virginia in a March 6 home match would have satisfied Puget little.

“We’re still pissed off,” Puget said after the game. “As long as we don’t get our ring, we’re still going to be pissed off.”

As the season progressed, Puget saw that while three freshmen played well for their years, his presence was missed, especially in doubles play: UCLA lost the doubles point in nine of its first 19 matches.

One month and a day after the Virginia rematch, Puget stood on the court with coach Billy Martin on senior day. Martin mentioned to the home crowd something that had not really crossed Puget’s mind. He expressed the possibility of redshirting Puget out for the season.

“Quite honestly, I don’t think I really wanted to play him this year,” Martin later said. “I just wasn’t sure that that was a smart thing.”

Martin’s more experienced teammates urged otherwise.

Redshirt sophomore Karue Sell saw a psychological advantage over opponents in Puget’s potential return.

“Everyone knows him,” Sell said. “People look at him playing (on court No. 5), and they’re going to say go, ‘Oh my god, he’s playing five.’ … We want that.”

While Clay Thompson felt great about the season, he felt Puget’s experience would make the best of a great NCAA title chance.

“We want to throw everything we can out there, and if we come up short, that’s fine,” said Thompson, a senior. “But at least we won’t say, ‘What if?’”

For Puget, a deep roster headlined by the nation’s top two ranked players in Thompson and junior Marcos Giron was too strong of a contender for the team to not go all in. Last season’s heartbreak stoked a fire in him that simply could not burn for another year.

In his words, Puget and his teammates want the 2014 NCAA title. Badly.

“Coming that close, you just want to play the next year and win it because you know you’re that close,” Puget said. “You don’t have any more excuses.”

***

Martin deployed Puget on the regular season’s final day.

Despite never having played together, Puget and freshman Mackenzie McDonald teamed up for an 8-4 win that clinched the doubles point against then-No. 3 USC.

In the following week leading up to Pac-12 championship weekend, Sell urged Puget to push coaches for a singles appearance. Both players had a role in making that hope a reality.

Sell and Puget raced out to an 8-3 doubles win in the title game against USC, finishing around 20 minutes before singles action started. Puget had enough rest to force Martin into making a decision.

Martin asked Puget if he felt up to playing. Puget accepted Martin’s offer.

Then Puget rewarded his faith.

On a day when UCLA’s top three players combined for just one set win, Puget finished a straight-set victory within seconds of the Bruins winning the entire match.

Following the championship trophy presentation, many Bruins laughed among themselves and took pictures along the courts. Puget sat on a chair near court No. 1 with ice packs draped over both of his knees. Multiple months still separated Puget from a full recovery.

His appearance said otherwise, yet Puget embraced the prospect of more doubles duty outings. Puget wanted coaches to trust that his faith in his game would not suffer from the time off.

“The confidence, I don’t need that. I have it in my mind and in my body,” Puget said.

The same degree of certainty surrounds Puget’s decision to return for, at most, nine games. He feels ready to move on from college tennis, with a winter 2015 diploma and a professional playing career awaiting.

But in these final two weeks, there’s a place he would not mind revisiting: a title game on his shoulders. Should he get another chance, Puget promises to refrain from letting so much as a step or gust of wind detract from one final achievement for UCLA.

“I feel like I’ve reached the end of the path,” Puget said. “I’ve given everything I could.”

Not everything.

Not yet.