The UCLA men’s tennis team has a problem, but it’s one that most teams would love to have.
After losing two of last year’s starting six to graduation, the fourth-ranked Bruins have replenished and refueled, adding three top athletes to their lineup. And now, their cup has runneth over.
“Unfortunately for a few good players, they might not be playing some matches,” coach Billy Martin said.
“We are really strong and deep. I would say we have eight, in my opinion, really solid players, of which I’m only going to be able to play six on a given day.”
Last year, the Bruins exceeded expectations to produce quite a resume. The 2008 team went 25-2 in dual matches, which was good enough to win their fifth straight Pac-10 title and send them to the national semifinals, where they were eventually taken down by Texas.
But for a program with so much historical success ““ the Bruins have won 16 NCAA championships in their history ““ UCLA is always looking to improve.
With such little room to fit all of its talent, the competition will most likely spill over to the practice court as well.
“The players know that I have to value someone who’s supposedly playing a little bit better than another guy and that’s a hard time,” Martin said. “If we can overcome that and have everybody just realize that no matter where they play in the lineup that point counts as much as any other point, I really think … we can do well.
“I always envy basketball coaches because they can put five guys in, but at least they don’t have to rate those five.”
Collegiate tennis dual matches allow for six players on each team, ranked from one to six, to play singles against the opponent with the corresponding ranking. Those six players will play in an additional three doubles matches, the pairs ranked from one to three. For the athletes, this adds some added pressure to maintain unity in a sport that is usually all about the individual.
“I don’t think everyone is working just for those spots,” redshirt junior Haythem Abid said.
“I think we’re working as a team to get better, and all that matters is to have good team spirit. It doesn’t matter which spot you’re going to play, just that all the guys are good. It’s competitive, but it’s not like we’re having trouble doing so.”
Martin stresses to his players that there are always aspects of their game that they can be working on, even in the challenge matches that he uses to help make his ranking decisions. He prefers to call them “practice sets.”
“You just don’t want to lose, but you’re mainly focused on getting better every day, not just on winning every match in practice,” sophomore Nick Meister said.
Competition was further induced by what might be described as a flash of good fortune for the Bruins, who will add two transfers looking to have an immediate impact to their 2009 roster.
Junior Matt Brooklyn was the No. 1 tennis player at Arizona State last year, winning All-Pac-10 honors for the second season in a row. But after the Sun Devils’ tennis team was discontinued for economic reasons, Brooklyn jumped to Westwood.
“With (ASU) dropping their program, which was unfortunate for ASU and for his team, we luckily benefited by being able to get him here at UCLA,” Martin said of Brooklyn. “He will certainly be an incredible addition to our team.”
Also transferring this past fall was junior Amit Inbar, who comes to UCLA as the former-No. 1 player for Maryland.
But perhaps the biggest change to the Bruin squad will be the return of Haythem Abid. Slated to be one of UCLA’s top players last fall, the Tunisian-native suffered a wrist injury and was forced to have surgery in December that demolished his chances to play in any of the team’s dual matches.
“He probably would have played No. 1 or 2 for us for sure last year,” Martin said. “I really thought (his injury) was going to be a disastrous thing for our team last year, but the guys really pulled through.
“But he’s back, he’s fit, his wrist is fine, he’s playing great ““ he’s definitely going to be our No. 1 or 2 guy this year.”
Also returning to the top of the lineup will be senior Harel Srugo. Srugo went 15-7 as the team’s No. 1 last year and made the All-Conference first team.
But even with all the talent they have, playing in the always-tough Pac-10, UCLA will meet some stiff competition if they want to repeat last year’s success.
“I think Stanford has as good a team as they’ve had in probably the last five or six years,” Martin said.
“They’ve got two great recruits, and they still have four high-class players back from last year. I expect them to be almost as good as anybody in the country, so we’ll have to battle them not only for the Pac-10, but possibly for a national championship.”
In addition to the Cardinal, the crosstown rival USC Trojans will also look to dethrone the Bruins as conference champions.
“One of those three schools will win the Pac-10,” Martin said. “I would be shocked if that didn’t happen.”
The Bruins have one more individual tournament this weekend at the Sherwood Country Club, before starting their dual match season on Jan. 22 at the Los Angeles Tennis Center against Brigham Young.