No UCLA men’s tennis pair made it farther than the round of 16, and no individual made it farther than the quarterfinals at the ITA Southwest Regional Championships this weekend.
Nine Bruins competed at the Malibu event, with eight forming four doubles pairs. The duos of freshman Keegan Smith-junior Maxime Cressy, freshman Bryce Pereira-senior Austin Rapp and senior Logan Staggs-sophomore Ben Goldberg finished in the round of 16, and Staggs finished in the singles quarterfinals round.
This marked the first time in four years that a Bruin has not claimed the singles title. Then-senior Gage Brymer won the tournament in 2016.
Staggs came into the tournament as the second seed, the highest-seeded Bruin, and Cressy was slotted at No. 9.
On the doubles side, freshman Lucas Bellamy and redshirt freshman Connor Rapp took down UC Santa Barbara’s Joseph Rotheram and Henrik Atlevi in the round of 64 before falling 8-6 to Loyola Marymount’s Lukas Moenter and Lucas Moreno in the round of 32. Staggs and Goldberg logged an 8-5 win over San Diego State’s Santiago Cevallos and Arnaud Restifo.
Pereira and Rapp toppled SDSU’s Sander Goels-Andersen and Nicholas Mitchell 8-4 as partners Smith and Cressy defeated Vatsal Bajpai and Sasha Krasnov from UC Irvine 8-3 in the round of 32.
Smith-Cressy, Pereira-Austin Rapp and Staggs-Goldberg all advanced to the round of 16 for UCLA but were defeated by teams from USC and USD.
Several Bruins made it further in the singles competition.
Pereira, Connor Rapp and Bellamy fell in their first singles matches to players from Pepperdine, Grand Canyon University and Pepperdine respectively. Austin Rapp, Smith, Staggs and Cressy emerged victorious on the first day of the event and advanced to the round of 16.
Three Bruins were defeated in the round of 32, with Staggs being the only one who made it further in the tournament. Austin Rapp fell 6-3, 6-2 to Brian Berdusco of Pepperdine, Cressy lost to Ben Hannestad of Arizona State and Keegan Smith defeated Igor Karpovets from Arizona 6-4, 6-4 before losing 6-4, 6-3 to Logan Smith of USC.
Day three of the ITA regionals featured the singles and doubles quarterfinals, as well as singles consolation matches in which Pereira defeated Nick Mitchell of SDSU 6-2, 6-7, 10-6 before losing to Max Mendelsohn from Pepperdine.
Staggs took down Dennis Uspenski from Pepperdine 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 to earn a spot in the quarterfinals but was defeated 7-6, 6-4 in the singles quarterfinals by UCSB’s Nicolas Moreno.
Senior Martin Redlicki didn’t participate, taking part instead in the qualifying rounds of the Las Vegas Tennis Open where he defeated Texas Christian University’s Alastair Gray 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 and Louisiana State University’s Eric Samuelsson 6-2, 6-3.
Redlicki ended up falling 6-2, 6-1 to former Illinois player Jared Hiltzik and was unable to get past the qualifying rounds. Former Bruins Karue Sell, Marcos Giron, Dennis Novikov and Mackenzie McDonald all competed in the Las Vegas event as well.
UCLA’s next game is Thursday at the Southern California Intercollegiate Championships, hosted by USC.