This weekend captured why UCLA men’s tennis coach Billy Martin believes in his team.
One day before the start of the NCAA Tournament, the team announced that senior Gage Brymer, the Bruins’ No. 1 singles player who’s also ranked 28th in the country, would miss the rest of the season following an upper body medical procedure.
UCLA (21-5) nonetheless pulled through and scrapped together two 4-0 victories over Army (21-10) and Mississippi (17-10) on Friday and Saturday, respectively, securing its place in the NCAA Tournament Round of 16.
“From day one, no one thought we were going to be that good, and we knew we had to earn all of our victories throughout the year,” Martin said. “We’ve done that. We did a great job doing that this weekend to give us a chance to go to Georgia and play at the final site.”
Fittingly, two of the Bruins with the least experience at their new singles positions carried the team to victory against the Rebels. Freshman Evan Zhu, who before this weekend only had match experience at No. 3 singles this year, put UCLA up 2-0 with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Ricardo Jorge on court two.
First-serve percentage is always an emphasis for the freshman, and he said he was able to make adjustments and key in on attacking his opponent.
“I was just really taking my time before my first serves and emphasize using my legs and staying up on the serves,” Zhu said. “(In terms of the game plan), I was trying to focus on playing aggressively, moving him and going for my shots with good racket head speed.”
Roughly 10 minutes later, junior Logan Staggs, who has only two matches at No. 3 singles under his belt at UCLA, defeated Ole Miss’ Tim Sandkaulen 6-2, 6-1.
Staggs’ serves and baseline forehands frequently discombobulated Sandkaulen, especially in the second set – multiple times, Sandkaulen simply watched the ball bounce past him, and then put his hands on his hips and gazed up at the sky.
“My serve has been pretty crucial so far. My forehand’s really improved, and I’ve been really hitting the ball through the court and just being offensive throughout both matches this weekend,” Staggs said. “Against these better players, you have to attack a little bit.”
Junior Martin Redlicki completed UCLA’s sweep versus Ole Miss, dispatching No. 23 Gustav Hansson 6-3, 6-2. After moving up to the No. 1 singles position over the weekend, Redlicki clinched the Bruins’ wins by hitting aces on match point.
Martin has been able to rely on Redlicki and Staggs the entire year, as they have combined for a 40-5 singles record in dual match play. Going forward into UCLA’s Round of 16 match against No. 12 Texas A&M on Thursday, Martin said he expects his team to keep scrapping as long as it can.
“They just had the look in their eyes that they wouldn’t be denied today. This is our home courts and we’re defending our turf,” Martin said. “We didn’t want to hear, ‘Poor UCLA, Gage is out, that’s the end of the year.’ Well, it’s not the end of our year yet and we’re going to be there and fight each and every match moving forward.”