A familiar foe: former UCLA m. tennis coach switches sides
By Mark Shapiro
Daily Bruin Contributor
For the UCLA men’s tennis team, Tuesday’s 7-0 stomping of the
seventh-ranked Pepperdine Waves was significant for several
reasons, the most prominent being the issue of revenge.
Last season’s finale against Pepperdine ended up with the Bruins
on the wrong end of a 6-1 score. After several tight victories over
Pepperdine in previous matches, that score was especially
surprising.
There was no better salve than a sound thrashing of the Waves to
avenge the score and, in the process, the Bruins were able to
firmly establish their post as the No. 2 team in the country.
"It was fantastic," UCLA head coach Billy Martin said, in his
usual succinct manner.
The match marked not only UCLA’s revenge, but also the return of
Pepperdine coach Glenn Bassett to the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
Until 1993, Bassett had been the Bruin head coach for 27 years and,
during his tenure in Westwood, coached UCLA to seven national
titles, the last coming in 1984. The man who filled Bassett’s
shoes, Martin, had been coached by Bassett through the junior ranks
and through his collegiate career. To say that this was an
emotional return would be to obvious.
"It was great; it was a thrill," Bassett said. "This is such a
super place. It’s wonderful being here, but gosh 7-0, they could
have treated me a little bit nicer."
For Martin, Bassett’s return was a bit more taxing because of
the connection that he has to his mentor.
"It was uncomfortable," Martin said. "It was a great win for the
team and I’m very happy about that. It certainly did not feel
really good to beat coach because I care about him and think so
much of him that that was the only nonhighlight of the day. I like
to win and I know that coach likes to win but that’s no added
incentive."
After having been coached by Bassett for so long, it would seem
inevitable that some of Bassett’s coaching techniques would rub off
on his pupil. These similarities were evident throughout the
afternoon as both coaches talked through cupped hands to their
squads, clapping and urging them on through positive words as they
moved from court to court.
* * *
After five dual matches, several Bruins have yet to lose even a
set in dual-match play. The top three of Justin Gimelstob, Srdjan
Muskatirovic and Eric Taino have rung up a 15-0 record thus far and
have not dropped a set between them. Junior Jason Thompson is also
undefeated thus far, after coming back from match point down in the
second set to vanquish the Waves’ Masahide Sakamoto and his
on-court ramblings.
* * *
This weekend, UCLA’s number two doubles team of Jason Thompson
and Eric Lin will most likely go to the Rolex Championships in
Dallas by virtue of their having won the Rolex Regional this past
fall. After struggling through some early dual matches, the pair
came up with a decisive victory over Pepperdine’s Michael Jessup
and Simon Aspelin.
Aside from this action, the team has the weekend off from
dual-match play with their next match on Tuesday against Oregon at
the Los Angeles Tennis Center.Comments to
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