In Gage Brymer’s first indoor intercollegiate championship, he didn’t want to only play one match. He wanted to stay in the tournament as long as he could.
In the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships this weekend, Brymer was the sole competitor for UCLA. The senior was matched up in the first round against the fifth seed in the tournament, Alfredo Perez from Florida.
“Going into the tournament I felt good, I had come off the win at the regional event,” Brymer said. “I thought I was playing well, I had been training pretty hard going in, so I had a good feeling about the tournament and I was super excited because it was the first time I had played in New York.”
Brymer took the courts to defeat Perez in three sets, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-2 Friday morning.
“After the first match I honestly felt great. I mean it was a big win for me to take out a seed,” Brymer said. “It was a good opportunity and I made the most out of it.”
Advancing into Friday afternoon, Brymer was then set to compete against Jose Salazar from Arkansas. Brymer was victorious again with another three-setter, this time with a score of 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. The senior didn’t have his best serving performance, hitting eight double faults in the match.
Saturday morning, Brymer returned to the courts to compete against the No. 1 seed in the tournament, Mikael Torpegaard from Ohio State. This ended up being Brymer’s final match of the tournament as he lost in straight sets 1-6, 2-6.
“My third round I actually thought I played very well again, he was the No. 1 seed – the No. 1 player in the country – so I knew I was going to have a tough match going in,” Brymer said. “But despite the score, it was a pretty lopsided score of 1 and 2, but I still felt like I played solid tennis and I definitely had opportunities. He just did a better job of winning the big points.”
Brymer’s final match consisted of many deuce points which ended up mainly going to Torpegaard.
“That kind of explains the score but I felt like I was in every game and that I was playing pretty solid tennis,” Brymer said.
At the end of the tournament, Brymer is happy with how he performed overall.
“I think it gives me some confidence going into the season just because I know that I’m playing at a high level,” Brymer said.
Associate head coach Grant Chen was also confident about Brymer’s performance this past weekend.
“Gage played really well, he has been playing some very good tennis this whole fall,” Chen said. “He really worked hard in the prep for the season and he’s really done a great job and is playing some very high level tennis and it’s really shown.”
Chen said he tells his players the same thing each time they advance to this championship tournament.
“Any win in New York is a good win, because it’s such an elite field of only 32 players, it’s the cream of the crop,” Chen said.
Looking forward to the upcoming season in January, Brymer will continue to practice and train to enhance his performance on the court.
“I think going into the season, it’s all positive at this point,” Brymer said.