They beat Kentucky, again.
For the fifth straight time in a span of five years, the UCLA
men’s tennis team beat Kentucky on Thursday, 4-2.
The match was in the first round of the USTA/ITA National Team
Indoor Championships, played this year in Seattle. The top 16 teams
in the nation are invited to the National Indoors each year.
“It was a really tough match for us,” UCLA coach
Billy Martin said. “We were all set to win the doubles point,
but we lost a couple of match points. The guys kept their heads up
and won four out of five singles matches.”
At No. 1 doubles, Alberto Francis and Kris Kwinta easily won
their match against Kentucky’s Rahim Esmail and Jesse Witten
8-3.
But at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles, the Bruins had early leads but
couldn’t hold on.
UCLA’s Chris Lam and Tobias Clemens had an early 7-3 lead
but lost to Nate Emge and Tigran Martirosyan 9-8 (5). At No. 3,
Philipp Gruendler and Aaron Yovan lost to Evan Austin and Alex Hume
9-8 (8).
Both had match-points but couldn’t convert them.
Singles was a different story.
At No. 1 singles, Clemens beat Witten 6-1, 6-4.
“I played a really good match,” Clemens said.
“In the first two games, we had about 20 deuces, but after
that I played great. I don’t think I can play much
better.”
Martin concurred.
“Clemens played incredible, high-quality tennis,” he
said.
But the real test came for the new Bruins, the four regulars who
didn’t start on last year’s squad.
At No. 4 singles, Kwinta beat Esmail 7-6 (3), 6-2, and Gruendler
beat Emge 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 at No. 5.
“This is a great confidence boost for our team,”
Martin said.
In the other Bruin singles win, Lam beat Austin 7-5, 7-6
(2).
Francis’ match at No. 3 was cut short after the Bruins had
clinched victory. Yovan accounted for the lone Bruin singles loss
at No. 6, where he lost to Hume 7-5, 6-0.
“Every win we can get is big,” Clemens said.
“We have to hang in there and get a good seed for the NCAA
tournament.”
The No. 10 Wildcats will play No. 14 Harvard in the consolation
bracket today, while the No. 6 Bruins advance to play No. 3 Florida
in today’s quarterfinals.
Under the National Indoors format, the Bruins will play matches
on at least three consecutive days ““ four if they make it to
the finals.
Because of this schedule, the National Indoors are often
regarded as a good warmup for the NCAA tournament, when combined
with the high quality of competition there.
“This gives us a chance to see some of the top teams in
the country and shows us what it’s like physically to play
three or four days in a row,” Martin said. “The guys
can believe me about how important conditioning is.”