The Bruins went to Sherwood, and no one was able to chop them
down.
Though No. 7 USC, No. 10 California and No. 31 San Diego State
were the other teams represented at the Sherwood Collegiate Cup, no
non-Bruin beat a starter on the UCLA men’s tennis team.
And no one beat Tobias Clemens, period. Clemens came to Sherwood
and won the tournament for the second consecutive year, beating
teammate Marcin Matkowski 6-2, 6-1 in the final.
The fact that a Bruin would be hoisting the trophy was a
foregone conclusion on Sunday, the day before the tournament
ended.
The semifinals at Sherwood were an all-Westwood affair, as
Clemens beat teammate Erfan Djahangiri, 6-1, 6-3, and Matkowski
downed Rodrigo Grilli, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2.
Head coach Billy Martin was torn between his team’s
dominance and his desire to see his players taking on
non-teammates.
“I’d like to see our guys do well, but the end of
the tournament was anti-climactic,” he said.
The tournament, which was supposed to show the team how it stood
on the national stage, resulted in pure Bruin dominance.
“That’s the way it should be; no one should be able
to beat us,” said Lassi Ketola.
The Bruins, ranked No. 1 in the nation, are still figuring
things out about their team.
One thing they’re continuing to realize, match after
match, is that newcomer Chris Lam will be a real asset.
“We got great results from Lam,” said Martin,
“His win over (Oliver) Maiberger was a huge win.”
Lam defeated the tournament’s No. 2 seed, San Diego
State’s Maiberger, 6-3, 6-0 in the second round.
UCLA also got a huge win from Djahangiri, as he beat the
tournament’s No. 4 seed and USC’s likely No. 1 player,
Prakash Amritraj, 6-2, 6-1.
“Erf over Amritraj was exceptionally good,” said
Martin.
All in all, this was an exceptionally good weekend for the Bruin
team. They got experience, performed well, and reasserted their
dominance at the Sherwood Country Club.
“Sherwood is a beautiful place,” said Djahangiri,
“It felt like a holiday.”