The UCLA men’s tennis team is taking a break from its dual match season for a week before it plays crosstown rival USC.
What is it doing with its down time? Playing in the laid-back, but still competitive, 126th Annual Pacific Coast Men’s Doubles Championship.
The Bruins are sending three teams to participate in the doubles championship. Doubles teams junior Karue Sell and sophomore Joseph Di Giulio, redshirt junior Ryoto Tachi and junior Nishanth Yamani, and freshman Austin Rapp and sophomore Michael Guzman will be traveling to La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club for the tournament.
“It is a fun event. It is kind of a rare event where you can have juniors, pros, college players, former college players, coaches, all in the same field,” said assistant coach Grant Chen. “A lot of the top colleges do go, but there are a lot of non-college players as well.”
This is the second-oldest tournament in the United States starting in 1890, with the U.S. Open as the oldest one. There will be 19 schools participating, with 123 total doubles teams in the tournament.
“The only analogy I can I think of what this tournament is like is it is kind of like the NBA All-Star weekend, where it is halfway through the dual match season,” Chen said. “You get a good opportunity to see all the teams, everyone in a kind of more laid-back setting, it’s just fun.”
The team of Sell and Di Giulio, a seventh seed in the tournament, is the only doubles team that UCLA is sending that plays in the current doubles lineup. The other two teams of the current lineup, sophomore Mackenzie McDonald and freshman Martin Redlicki, and Rapp and senior Dennis Mkrtchian, are sitting out with the exception of Rapp.
Rapp is instead playing with Guzman. They are a ninth seed in the tournament.
“I think (coach Billy Martin) wanted to mix things up, try something new,” Guzman said. “(Rapp is) pretty tall and has a big serve, and I’m quick. So he can set up the points and I can put them away.”
In addition to the three teams, assistant coach Chen will be participating as well with his friend Evan Jurgensen. Chen he said he wasn’t worried about the possibility of a coach versus player matchup, and thinks that if it does happen it will be more fun than awkward.
“It’s possible. Will it be weird? No, I think it will be more fun and we will get a kick out of it and have a good time,” Chen said.
Tachi said it’s great that some of the coaching staff is participating, though he hopes he doesn’t play Chen in the tournament.
“That’s exciting. I don’t know if it is a good idea to beat a coach,” Tachi said, laughing.
The tournament started Thursday, March 5 and goes on till Sunday, March 8.