A challenge was bound to come sometime. But no one knew it was
going to be threefold. First, it was weather. Then, it was
sickness. And finally, it was Wildcats.
The No. 1 UCLA men’s tennis team overcame those three
obstacles to beat No. 11 Kentucky 4-3 in the team’s first
indoor match of 2003 on Tuesday.Â
Snowstorms delayed the team’s flight into Kentucky. They
arrived six hours late and missed Sunday practice.
Additionally, junior Marcin Matkowski has been nursing an
illness that kept him out of practice Monday.
The team persevered and got some outstanding play in predictable
places.
The doubles point, as it has gone all year, went to the
Bruins. In singles, Tobias Clemens and Ketola were solid as
usual. The No. 12-ranked Clemens continued his recent dominance,
winning 7-6 (2), 6-4 over Kentucky’s Jesse Witten, the No. 4
player in the nation.
“Toby won a great match,” Martin
said. “(Witten) is very, very good. It was really a high
level of tennis.”
Lassi Ketola was the only other Bruin to win in straight sets,
as he registered a 6-1, 7-5 victory over Emery.
Following losses by Chris Lam at No. 6 singles and Matkowski at
No. 2 singles, the match hung in the balance on the No. 3 and No. 4
courts with Grilli and Erfan Djahangiri.
Despite holding his serve the entire match, Grilli lost two
tiebreakers to big-serving lefty Evan Austin, 7-6 (0), 7-6 (1).
That left it up to Djahangiri, who, with the team’s hopes
set squarely on his shoulders, hung on for a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 victory
to clinch the match for the Bruins.
The Bruins now enter the National Team Indoors on Thursday after
being battle-tested by the Wildcats.