After Wednesday’s match against the University of Hawai’i, the No. 13-ranked UCLA men’s tennis team will finally receive the gift they have been waiting for.
A break.
The Bruins will face the Rainbow Warriors and then enjoy a two-week layoff before Pac-10 conference play begins, allowing the Bruins to be at full strength and ready to defend their crown.
Although the Bruins have dealt with injury issues lately, that has not hindered them from staking their claim as one of the best teams in the nation.
In their last three matches, UCLA has gone up against three top-50 teams who are also in tough Pac-10 conference: No. 46 California, No. 1 Stanford, and No. 8-ranked USC. The Bruins came out of that stretch with a record of 2-1, after dominating Cal, suffering a nail-biting loss to Stanford, and narrowly defeating the Trojans.
During that three-match stretch, the Bruins had some important high moments.
Against Stanford, senior Michael Look posted an impressive straight-set victory over star freshman Ryan Thacher. Less than a week later, the Bruin duo of redshirt junior Haythem Abid and sophomore Nick Meister defeated the No. 4 doubles team in the country, USC’s Robert Farah and Steve Johnson. Abid went on to defeat Farah, the nation’s No. 1 singles player, in straight sets, setting up a crucial win for UCLA.
The tandem of Abid and Meister also completed an impressive run in the Pacific Coast Doubles Tournament this past weekend in La Jolla. The No. 9-seeded pair began by winning their two early round matches and reaching the round of 16, in which they faced the tournament’s No. 1-seeded team, USC’s Farah and Johnson. The Bruins once again proved to be a thorn in the Trojans’ side, defeating their USC counterparts 6-4, 2-6, 6-3. Abid and Meister continued on to win their quarterfinal and semifinal matchups, advancing them to the tournament final, where they faced the tournament’s No. 8 seed, Rice’s Tobias Scheil and Christoph Muller. The match proved to be the Bruins’ toughest of the tournament, and although they dropped the first set, the Bruins were able to rally and pull out the victory, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, claiming the tournament championship.
Also representing UCLA in the Pacific Coast Doubles Tournament were the teams of freshman Eugen Brazdil and sophomore Amit Inbar, junior Matt Brooklyn and senior Michael Look, and redshirt freshman Jake Fleming and sophomore Ahmed Ismail. The tandems of Brazdil and Inbar, along with Brooklyn and Look, both advanced to the tournament’s round of 32 before being ousted.
The Bruins will look to carry the momentum of the win over USC last week, as well as the double’s tournament championship victory, into their match against Hawai’i on Wednesday. Hawaii holds a record of 1-3 on the season, including a loss to California. The Rainbow Warriors have not won a match on the road and will be looking to hand the Bruins what would be their second home loss of the season.
That match is set for 1:30 p.m. at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.