Despite the lingering effects of a rash of setbacks that have hit the UCLA men’s tennis team this season, the Bruins continue to outdo themselves once they step on the court.
Playing without their top player for the third straight match, No. 9 UCLA raced to a victory over No. 18 Arizona, 5-2, on Saturday, playing in front of a modest home crowd at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
The win marks their eighth in a row and sets up UCLA (15-4, 5-0 Pac-10) for a showdown against their rival, No. 6 USC (18-4, 5-0), on Friday that will determine the conference champion.
“I think we’re all looking forward to the ‘SC match,” coach Billy Martin said. “That’s always a pinnacle point of the year here, but now it’s going to be for the Pac-10 Championship for the third straight year. … We had to win this match today to have that chance.”
After winning the doubles point on the strength of their still-undefeated pairing of senior Harel Srugo and sophomore Amit Inbar, who posted an 8-1 victory at Court 2, Martin decided to pull redshirt junior Haythem Abid from the singles lineup.
Abid, who has consistently played at the Bruins’ No. 1 spot, returned from a visit home to play for his country’s national team in the Davis Cup this week.
“He’s still a little tired,” Martin said. “He came back from Tunisia on Wednesday and he’s still a little jet-laggy and he played a lot of tennis over there. I felt like we could afford to maybe let him rest another couple days.”
Going into singles play with a one-point advantage, UCLA once again clinched with three straight-set victories. Inbar and fellow sophomore Nick Meister won their matches on the last two courts, before senior Michael Look fought off a second-set rally from Arizona’s Andres Carrasco to give the Bruins the win.
Soon after the team clinched, however, Srugo received his third point penalty in the match on Court 4, enough to disqualify him and give the Wildcats their first point of the day.
“Thank God Mikey (Look) won at about the same time on Court 3 to give us our fourth point, so it didn’t come back to haunt us,” Martin said.
In the final match of the day, junior Matt Brooklyn took on his former teammate Andres Arango in an emotional three-set battle on Court 2. Both players transferred from Arizona State this year after the Sun Devils were forced to end their men’s tennis program, where Brooklyn played No. 1 and Arango No. 2.
“They wanted to be competitive, but it’s their old buddy and teammate,” Martin said. “It’s a tough situation really, but they had a pretty good match.”
Brooklyn sat out of both the Bruins’ matches last weekend because one of his winter quarter grades had not come in, but by game time this week, his academic record had been fully cleared.
“He’s rearing to go,” Martin said. “Nobody’s more ready to go than him.”
UCLA travels to Malibu today for their last nonconference competition of the regular season, a rescheduled match against No. 17 Pepperdine.
Martin has tried to emphasize the importance of this match because of a natural tendency to dwell on the Bruins’ rivalry match at the end of this week.
“It wouldn’t be horrible, but I think it would take a little of the flavor out of it if we were to lose (at Pepperdine),” Martin said. “I think if we could win that match … it would give us great momentum and a lot of confidence going into the USC match.”