Haythem Abid has been waiting to help his team for over a year. Thursday afternoon at USC’s Marks Tennis Stadium, the redshirt junior supplied his Bruins with the biggest confidence boost they could have asked for. Registering victories in both his singles and doubles matches over the No. 1-ranked player in the country, Abid led No. 13 UCLA men’s tennis team to a 4-3 win over its rival No. 8 USC.
In the premier match of the day at the No. 1 singles court, Abid defeated USC’s junior Robert Farah, who had just this week reached the peak of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s rankings with 14 consecutive victories. After sitting out last season with an injury, Abid had yet to find a statement win playing at the Bruins’ top spot, but that changed with what UCLA coach Billy Martin believed to be his best play of the year.
“He’s been working so hard,” Martin said. “I know last year was extremely difficult for him psychologically, to not be able to play and to watch us do so well and want to be able to help us.”
Earlier, Abid and sophomore Nick Meister had beaten Farah and freshman Steve Johnson to help UCLA take the doubles point to start the match. Doubles play was split over two days after rain halted play halfway through the matches on Wednesday, the original start date. But Thursday’s clear weather shined on a path to victory for Abid and the Bruins.
“I’ve been really fighting hard after my surgery last year,” he said. “I’ve been playing really good guys at my No. 1 position against Stanford, Virginia, and all the good teams, and I was very close to winning every time. I think I really needed this game for my confidence.”
After UCLA (8-4) senior Michael Look dropped the first singles match of the day ““ and his first of the season ““ to Johnson, USC (10-3) had tied it at one. However, the Bruins responded with three straight wins from sophomore Holden Seguso, Abid and then finally sophomore Amit Inbar to clinch the victory, their fifth straight against the Trojans. As important as the win was for the Bruins’ self-esteem, it is the squad’s April 17 rematch that will count towards their conference record.
“It’s a good win,” Martin said. “It’s always fun to beat the Trojans. I mean we gotta live here in the same city, but we’ve got one more match.”