The men’s tennis team is squeezing in a busy stretch of matches before the start of the dual match season on Jan. 20.
Two current Bruins, junior Mackie McDonald and sophomore Martin Redlicki, made the main draw of the USC Los Angeles Pro Futures. McDonald automatically qualified due to his ATP ranking of 371 and was awarded the No. 8 seed. Redlicki, whose ATP ranking is No. 993, had to battle through three qualifying rounds before reaching the final draw of 32 players. McDonald, though, lost in the first round 6-3, 6-2 to Evan King. Redlicki is expected to play on Wednesday depending on the weather.
Freshman Daniel Gealer also entered the tournament, but lost in the second qualifying round to Vanderbilt grad Ryan Lipman 6-2, 6-3.
The main draw was supposed to start on Tuesday, but play was put on hold due to rain. The rest of the team will start play in the next week at the Sherwood Collegiate Cup in Thousands Oaks, California and the NCTC Tournament in Palm Springs, California.
New rankings
The ITA announced preseason national rankings on Tuesday, detailing team, individual and doubles rankings. UCLA came in at No. 14 in the country, the second-highest in the Pac-12 behind No. 8 USC. In total, the conference had four teams ranked in the top 25, with No. 20 Stanford and No. 21 Cal representing the other two.
Throughout the season, the Bruins will play seven teams that are currently ranked in the top 25.
As far as individual rankings, only two Bruins made the cut. Redlicki, who made noise during the fall season when he won the USTA/ITA Southwest Regional Championship in October, earned the No. 48 ranking. Sophomore transfer Logan Staggs garnered the No. 98 position.
McDonald, who was the No. 3 singles player back in the fall, fell off the rankings. The junior did not play in an ITA event over the fall and therefore did not receive any points to be ranked. He spent his time on the ATP tour, playing in the futures and challenger level tournaments.
December play
Junior Gage Brymer came away with an impressive winter break performance, winning the Costa Mesa Open Classic. Brymer was the fourth seed in the tournament and made it through six rounds, winning each match in straight sets.
Representing the U.S.
At the beginning of December, McDonald represented the United States in the Master’U BNP Paribas, a team event featuring some of the best players still competing at the university level from a variety countries.
“I’m so happy to be able to represent my country outside the United States,” McDonald said in an interview with UCLA Athletics. “It was awesome for our team, coming from various collegiate teams across the country, to come together and fight for each other.”
McDonald played No. 1 singles for the squad. His 7-6, 6-1 win over Grégoire Jacq of France helped seal the United States’ fifth consecutive Master’U BNP Paribas title.
“Winning this tournament feels like a big accomplishment, and we are so happy to bring this trophy back for the fifth year in a row,” McDonald said. “We were able to compete at a top level for each other. Although it was a short three days of competition, we went through a lot of tough matches and pushed each other to get the win.”
Compiled by Korbin Placet, Bruin Sports senior staff.