Down a point in the tiebreaker of the first set, Martin Redlicki called a let. After serving, the UCLA freshman had seen a ball roll onto the court behind his opponent, Stanford’s David Wilczynski.
But Wilczynski claimed the ball had already been there before Redlicki’s serve. Within moments, Stanford coach Paul Goldstein lost a protest with the chair umpire over the call and responded by flinging his hat to the ground in anger at the fact that Redlicki would be allowed to serve again.
The controversial call turned into just the fuel Redlicki needed to pull out a victory at No. 3 singles in UCLA’s 5-2 win over Stanford (6-4) on Saturday.
“I didn’t get angry, but it got me a little more fired up, got me a little more intense for sure,” Redlicki said. “I got the let, hit a really big first serve and that got me very fired up.”
The newly energized Redlicki pulled out a tough first set before controlling the second set 6-3 to clinch the victory for his team.
The No. 21 Bruins (7-5) took an early lead by winning the doubles point over the Cardinal, who had just taken the doubles point in a 6-1 loss to No. 1 USC the day earlier. In fact, Stanford’s doubles team of John Morrissey and Robert Stineman defeated USC’s top duo, the No. 2 doubles pair in the nation.
But Redlicki and sophomore doubles partner Mackenzie McDonald, who form the nation’s No. 5 doubles team, were ready for them Saturday.
“We knew that Stineman had a much better net game than Morrissey, and we knew that Morrissey’s baseline game was a lot better than Stineman’s,” Redlicki said. “So whenever they were at the back, we attacked Stineman. When they were at the net, we attacked Morrissey.”
The strategy worked, as McDonald and Redlicki defeated the Stanford pair 6-4. A victory on the second doubles court from junior Karue Sell and sophomore Joseph Di Giulio sealed the doubles point for the Bruins, who are now 9-3 in doubles points this year.
“I’ve been very encouraged with our doubles lately,” said coach Billy Martin. “I know we didn’t play well down in Baylor (last week) for whatever reason, but we had played well (at the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships) in Chicago. I think we’re getting better, and the teams are starting to gel a little bit more, getting to know each other.”
When singles started, UCLA quickly fell behind in three of the matches. On the second court, senior co-captain Dennis Mkrtchian started to feel the effects of a flu, feeling lightheaded and needing to take a five-minute timeout for the trainers to check on him, according to Martin. Martin said Mkrtchian’s pulse was very high, and had it not come down in the five minutes with the trainers, he would have forfeited. Mkrtchian continued to play but lost 6-3, 6-1 to Morrissey.
On courts five and six, freshman Austin Rapp and redshirt junior Ryoto Tachi also fell behind early, putting the onus on McDonald, Redlicki and Sell to pull through in their matches. They all did, each pulling out two-set victories to clinch a victory for the Bruins. The teams played on, though, with Rapp losing in a 10-point tiebreaker and Tachi battling back to win in three sets.
Tachi, playing in just his third dual match of the season, filled in for Di Giulio, who Martin said has struggled recently in singles.
“I was really proud of Ryoto to jump in there and play real well and come through,” Martin said. “It doesn’t mean he’s taking over that spot, but it gives me confidence in him. And it will allow Joe to kind of look at it and I think he’ll be a little hungrier the next time he gets out there.”
Tachi’s match was the last to finish, so the entire team watched as he capped off a comeback in which he took 12 of the last 13 games over Stanford’s David Hsu.
“That’s the best feeling ever,” Tachi said. “That’s probably one of the motivations. I don’t know when I’m going to play next, but when I do play, I know that everyone’s going to be watching me. And I want to get that excitement.”