While the majority of UCLA students were packing their bags to
go back home at the end of fall quarter for winter break, Haythem
Abid made the decision to stay in Westwood.
The men’s tennis player had one thing in mind when he
turned down the chance to go back home to Tunisia and spend time at
home after a long quarter in which he was dealing with several
injuries.
“I wanted to stay here and work out with the other guys
that stayed back,” Abid reasoned.
After being forced to withdraw from some tournaments during the
fall season, Abid realized the only way to get back to his
competitive level of play was to put himself through a rigorous
regimen.
And that started when everyone else began to ease up. So, this
weekend, when he took the courts at the Sherwood Collegiate Cup in
Thousand Oaks and captured the tournament title, it came as no
surprise that he was perhaps the most prepared player in the
draw.
“I started the tournament pretty well and I think that
helped,” Abid said. “I was hitting the ball pretty good
and my stroke never went away.”
The conditions on the court were far from ideal, however, as
winds moved the ball in unpredictable ways, forcing the sophomore
to adjust and move around much more.
Abid didn’t mind, though, knowing that he was fully
prepared, physically and mentally.
“I was moving well and I feel like I’m in good
physical shape,” he said. “I was mentally relaxed,
also, and I wasn’t too worried and just stayed focused and
calm.”
Such conditioning seemed to be all Abid needed as he cruised
through to the quarterfinals, where he played a tough opponent
named Matija Zgaga, the tournament’s defending champion.
Though it was no stroll in the park, Abid was able to get past
Zgaga and was pitted up against USC’s Kaes Van’t Hof in
the semifinals.
The semifinal match was much easier for the Tunisian, as he sent
Van’t Hof home with a 6-3, 6-1 defeat. But the Bruin
sophomore wasn’t done facing off against members of the
crosstown Trojan squad, as he was set to play Dejan Cvetkovic in
the final on Monday morning.
“I started the first set well and felt like I was
dominating the second set,” Abid said of his final match.
“Suddenly I lost my focus, and he was doing a really good
job of slicing the ball back and taking the power off of
it.”
After splitting the first two sets, Abid made adjustments and
came out with a new game plan in the third and final set, and it
seemed to work well as he pulled out with a 7-5, 2-6, 6-3
victory.
But the tournament wasn’t quite over for Abid, as he and
doubles partner sophomore Michael Look took the court for the
doubles championship against a very familiar duo.
The sophomore Bruins were matched up against senior teammates
Benjamin Kohlloeffel and Philipp Gruendler, who had made it
successfully through their end of the draw.
The tandem of Kohlloeffel and Gruendler is not a new one, as the
two compiled an impressive 30-3 record and were the No. 1 doubles
team in the nation for some time, and it came as no surprise that
they were able to beat their Bruin teammates, 8-4.
“They played really well against us,” Abid said.
“We just tried to have fun and have a good match. It’s
fun having familiar faces on the other side of the court. You can
relax a little bit.”
QUICK HITS: The Bruins will begin their dual
match season this Thursday at home against UC Irvine at 1:30 p.m.
at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. … Senior Chris Surapol did not
play in this weekend’s tournament, but is expected to play
against the Anteaters. … Kohlloeffel and Gruendler were not
penciled in for the Sherwood Collegiate Cup until the cancellation
of a tournament in Palm Springs that they had planned to play
in.