When the No. 4 UCLA men’s tennis team takes the courts
today against Oregon at the Los Angeles Tennis Center at 1:30 p.m.,
the players will be the same ones who have played all season.
The team has lost any anticipation that its leader from
2001-2002, Jean-Julien Rojer, will be returning to help win a
national championship. The team found out Tuesday that Rojer, who
has had success playing in professional tournaments the past few
months, will not be returning for his senior season.
Now that they have that closure, the quest can truly begin. UCLA
(17-2, 3-0 Pac-10) currently sits atop the conference standings
with No. 7 Stanford. Wins this weekend against Oregon (8-9, 0-4
Pac-10) and No. 15 Washington (14-4, 0-4 Pac-10), who visits the
LATC at 1 p.m. on Saturday, would help the Bruins’ chances of
winning the conference title.
Oregon, a team that hasn’t had much success this season,
comes first, but head coach Billy Martin isn’t overly
concerned about the Ducks.
“I’m hoping Oregon will be a good little warm-up
match for Washington,” he said.
The Huskies are expected to be a much tougher challenge. They
began the season 14-0 but have recently lost four straight Pac-10
matches. They were swept last weekend by Arizona State and
Arizona.
“I think Washington is a very good team,” Martin
said. “Their one-two punch is as good as anybody’s in
the country.
“We really can’t let our guard down. Coming off of
two losses, they will be ready to redeem themselves against
us.”
The one-two punch is the nation’s No. 10 singles player,
Alex Vlaski, and the nation’s No. 26 singles player, Matt
Hanlin. This should set the stage for some stellar matches as
UCLA’s Tobias Clemens, No. 5 in the nation, will face Vlaski,
and Marcin Matkowski, No. 40 in the nation, will face Hanlin.
This will be Matkowski’s first match in two weeks. He
missed this past weekend’s matches against Cal and Stanford
because he was representing Poland in the Davis Cup.
“He’s back,” Martin said. “That’s
the good news. He’ll be ready for the weekend.”
Another player to watch is UCLA’s Erfan Djahangiri,
currently ranked No. 64 nationally. Djahangiri, who won his first
13 singles matches of the season, has now lost three straight. He
will look to regain form this weekend.
“After stopping my winning streak I’ve started a
losing streak now,” he said. “I’ve been playing
really bad, but you go through periods like this. I’ve been
practicing hard, and I know I’ll be in good shape again.
I’m not worried too much.”
This weekend marks a sort of new beginning for this experienced
Bruin team. Never before have they actually known for certain that
Rojer would not be returning. Though it is now certain, it is also
worth pointing out that Rojer didn’t play a match all
season.
“We’ve been together from the beginning, and now we
know what the 12 guys here in the team room need to do
together,” Djahangiri said.