By Dave Denicke
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
OJAI, Calif. ““ The saying goes that sometimes the whole is
greater than the sum of its parts. Last weekend, the UCLA
men’s tennis team put that adage to the test at the Pac-10
Individual Championships.
Four Bruins competed in the main singles and doubles draws, with
the best performances coming from the senior doubles team of
Brandon Kramer and Jong-Min Lee, and a semifinalist showing in
singles by freshman Jean-Julien Rojer.
“I think this tournament shows that we are just as good a
team as Stanford,” UCLA head coach Billy Martin said.
“We’re evenly matched.”
In Kramer and Lee’s first-round match against KJ
Hippensteel and David Martin of Stanford, the Bruin seniors were
serving up 6-5, when two consecutive close calls went against them,
enabling the Cardinal to even the match with a break of serve.
The latter of the two was important, because UCLA seemingly won
the point on an overhead by Kramer. But his own momentum pushed
Kramer into the net, disqualifying the point. “I was running
so hard I couldn’t stop. We ended up losing the point because
of that, and I just went crazy,” Kramer said. “We
should’ve gotten the point.”
Kramer and Lee were both fuming and their anger propelled them
to an 8-6 win. “We were pissed off. Those two points did us a
world of good. Suddenly everything was clicking,” Lee
said.
That momentum spilled over the remainder of the tournament for
the two, who devoured Oregon and Washington before facing
Oregon’s Guillermo Carter and Leslie Eisinga in
Sunday’s final.
In that matchup, though, the momentum from Lee and
Kramer’s previous wins turned flat as Carter and Eisinga
jumped out to a 5-0 lead.
UCLA took the second set 6-2, but encountered a setback in the
third when Eisinga hit a drop shot winner for a break of serve,
giving the Ducks an early 2-1 lead. After trading breaks of serve,
Kramer placed a volley at the feet of Oregon. The winner resulted
in a 6-5 lead for UCLA.
On Eisinga’s serve at 6-5, UCLA continued to be denied by
Eisinga and Carter. But by the second match point, Eisinga ran out
of answers. He missed a first serve, pushed a volley wide and then
watched as the Bruin seniors celebrated their title.
“It got a little tight, but we were able to tighten the
noose on them and come through,” Kramer said.
The victory marked Lee’s second consecutive Pac-10 doubles
title, along with his 1999 triumph with Grinda.
“It’s great to put my name down on the trophy
again,” Lee said.
In singles play, all four Bruins in the main draw advanced to
the quarterfinals, but only Rojer proved worthy of playing on the
weekend, by virtue of a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Carter of Oregon.
Though the matchplay itself did not last very long, a rain delay
stretched out the match over three hours.
The first of two rain delays affected three Bruin quarterfinal
match-ups. The largest swing after the rain took place on court
three, where Stanford’s Geoff Abrams recovered from an early
deficit to defeat Jean-Noel Grinda, 7-5, 6-3.
On the lower courts, freshman Erfan Djahangiri continued his
torrid play of late, sweeping through Friday and Saturday’s
matches into Sunday’s final. Leading up to the match against
Stanford’s Ali Ansari, Djahangiri won three matches,
including wins over other Cardinals Carter Morris and David Martin.
On Sunday, he scored a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Ansari, giving him
three wins over Cardinal opponents in as many days.
“UCLA and Stanford are two great universities, but I
wanted to show them that UCLA is better,” Djahangiri
said.
As for other Bruins competing in the invitational draw, Chris
Sands, Travis Rettenmaier and Lassi Ketola all reached the
quarterfinals before yielding to Stanford players.
In the invitational doubles final, again it was UCLA and
Stanford. It offered a chance at redemption for Ketola and
Rettenmaier, who beat Stanford’s Ansari and Scott, 6-4,
7-5.
“I was disappointed after the singles, so it was good to
at least get the doubles,” Ketola said.
So as the Bruins take home three titles and a share of the
Thatcher Cup with Stanford, thanks to each school’s 12 match
wins, UCLA hopes to parley its individual victories into the sum of
one NCAA team title ““ to be decided later this month in
Athens, Ga.