Although the UCLA men’s tennis team limped through the beginning of the 2008 fall season, coach Billy Martin is not panicking. In fact, he is not worried at all.
Aside from a borderline abysmal performance in the fall season’s first tournament, the Bruins were able to gain some steam heading into the regular season, mainly behind the consistent play of Arizona State junior transfer Matt Brooklyn.
While the fall tournament matches do not count toward the team’s actual record, they do serve as an indicator as to where a team stands heading into the season; they are taken into consideration when team rankings are determined.
“These matches have a lot to do with the rankings,” senior Michael Look said. “Rankings are a really big thing if you want to perform individually. To be successful, you’ve got to get your ranking up there.”
Martin said he was not entirely pleased with his team’s performance in the fall, but he attributes the slow start to a lack of urgency and excitement for the fall season.
“I thought we had a pretty good fall,” Martin said. “I wouldn’t say I was really, really happy, but I have some older players on the team that have been through the fall, and as they get into their junior and senior years, they are not quite as excited about (the fall).”
In the first tournament of the fall season, the Bruins traveled to Tulsa, Okla., for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American Championships. The team left the tournament winning only two out of the 11 singles matches it competed in, and no singles player was able to make it past the second round of his respective bracket.
“In our tournaments, we didn’t perform as well as we wanted to, and I think we got a bit of a wake-up call there,” redshirt junior Haythem Abid said.
However, a week later, at the ITA Regional Championships, UCLA was able to gain some momentum and show glimpses of just how deep the Bruin squad actually is. Sophomore Holden Seguso, seeded No. 2 in the tournament, and Brooklyn, seeded No. 4, both advanced to the final rounds of the men’s singles draw.
But in his round-of-32 match, Seguso was sidelined with an injury and forced to retire. Meanwhile, Brooklyn advanced through to the quarterfinals without dropping a set but was defeated by USC’s Matt Kecki in straight sets.
In the consolation bracket of the tournament, redshirt freshman Jake Fleming advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to eventual consolation champion, Loyola Marymount’s Geza Bazula. In doubles action, sixth-seeded Eugen Brazdil and Nick Meister advanced to the final rounds before being ousted in the quarterfinals by second-seeded and eventual runners-up, Pepperdine’s Omar Altmaan and Bassam Beidas.
In the Bruins’ next tournament of the fall, the SoCal Intercollegiate Championships, UCLA made a definitive statement on the singles side with four players advancing past the round-of-16. The Bruins also produced the tournament’s top-seeded player in Brooklyn, and fifth-seeded player in Amit Inbar, a sophomore transfer from Maryland.
Surprisingly, it was UCLA’s Meister who advanced to the tournament final after upsetting his teammate, the top-seeded Brooklyn, in the semifinals. Meister was then defeated by the No. 2 seed, Pepperdine’s Moody Kamel, 7-5, 7-6.
The Bruins are coming off of a remarkable 2007-2008 campaign in which they finished the season with a record of 25-2 in team competition. Although they were upset by the No. 7 Texas Longhorns in the national semifinals, the Bruins went undefeated in conference play, claiming their fifth straight Pac-10 title.
And to say that Martin’s expectations for the team are lofty would be an understatement.
“I have really high expectations for this team,” Martin said. “I told the team my three goals, which are to be Pac-10 champion for the sixth year in a row, to be undefeated at home and last is the NCAA Championship. That’s what we’re going to be shooting for.”