The stage was set. The UCLA men’s tennis team was just one
point away from a spot in the 2003 NCAA Championship, the goal it
had worked so very hard to attain.
Marcin Matkowski stood on Court 2, serving with two chances at
match point to send the Bruins to the finals. And though it
appeared nothing could go wrong, it did.
Things went very wrong, in fact. Matkowski lost the points, the
set and the match. The UCLA team sat motionless, heartbroken.
The Bruins had their chance.
“I still remember so vividly standing there 40-15 up and
seeing Marcin,” coach Billy Martin said. “I’m not
looking back on it and whining, but I’m still mad that we
lost that match.”
The Bruins had their chance. Just like they had their chance in
2002, when they lost a heartbreaker in the semifinals to Georgia.
Or in 2001, when they lost another close match to Southern
Methodist in the quarterfinals.
Oh yes, there have certainly been chances. And this year, as No.
7 UCLA opens its season today playing host to UC Irvine, one cannot
help but wonder: Does this team have a chance to win a national
title that has eluded the powerhouse program since 1984?
“I think we have as good a chance as any year, but I
don’t want to talk about chances anymore,” senior
Tobias Clemens said. “I’ve been through so many ups and
downs with this team.
“We’ve always been saying we have great chances. Who
gives a damn about chances? Let’s see how it goes. It
doesn’t make sense to talk about chances.”
Clemens may have a point. The highs have been very high, the
lows very low, and this team has had to endure a lot.
Senior Jean-Julien Rojer was supposed to return to UCLA last
spring, but he didn’t. Would-be freshman sensation Robert Yim
planned on enrolling at UCLA in the fall, but he turned pro.
Matkowski left the team after his junior season to pursue tennis in
his native Poland, and three senior leaders from last year
graduated.
All told, this team has a very different look than last
year’s semifinalists.
Clemens is back, as is junior team captain Chris Lam, but
that’s where the similarities end.
New to the squad are junior Kris Kwinta, a transfer from
Tennessee, and Phillip Gruendler, a freshman from Germany. Junior
Alberto Francis will finally get his chance with a permanent spot
in the starting singles lineup, while sophomores Chris Surapol and
Aaron Yovan will be expected to contribute this season.
Gruendler is one reason Martin is excited about UCLA’s
prospects. Yim’s shocking decision, which came in September,
left the team with very few options. But a little scrambling
and a lot of paperwork put Gruendler, a player who finished third
at the Under-18 German Championships, in a position to help the
Bruins immediately.
“We were very fortunate to get him,” Martin said.
“He’s really going to fill in nicely and help us be a
contender.”
Junior Luben Pampoulov, another player who figures to transform
the Bruins into a very legitimate title contender, won’t be
available to play until the spring. Pampoulov enrolled at UCLA last
spring, and will gain his eligibility after sitting out a full
year, as per transfer rules. He continues to practice with the
team.
“We certainly won’t be at our best until April when
Luben joins the team,” Martin said. “No one has been
playing better tennis on our team than Luben. He’s been
shellacking almost all of the guys (on the team) the whole
fall.”
“His nickname is “˜The Magician,'”
Clemens said. “He’s a great player.”
Pampoulov figures to enter the starting lineup no lower than No.
3 singles, and he will possibly play as high as No. 1 or No. 2.
But for the time being, the No. 2 spot belongs to Lam, who is in
his second season at UCLA after transferring from Santa Clara. Lam,
originally from Honolulu, brings a steady, unwavering leadership
presence to the team.
“It will take some time to get to know everyone and get
that team chemistry going, but I’m sure that by the time the
NCAAs come around, we’ll be able to bond together,”
said Lam, the No. 18 player in the country. “We definitely
have the potential. If we really focus and put our time in, we will
contend again for the title.”
Contend. That’s all Clemens has done during his three
years at UCLA. But that final hump has proven too difficult to
overcome.
In the team’s NCAA tournament losses the past three
seasons, Clemens has lost his singles match, a rarity for the
senior.
Playing at the No. 1 position since his sophomore year, he has
consistently been ranked among the top 10 in the nation. Last
season he posted a 33-6 overall singles record, while he was 34-10
the season before. And although his tournament losses the last two
seasons were both to the No. 1 player in the country, Clemens,
ranked No. 12 this season, still feels a sense of
responsibility.
“A loss is a loss,” he said. “I expect myself
to win those matches. I’m as much responsible (for the
losses) as anyone else.”
A harsh personal critique from the two-time All American and
reigning Pac-10 Player of the Year, but the Bonn, Germany, native
demands near-perfection from himself.
That is why he is dedicating himself to winning the NCAA
Individual Championship this year, something he hasn’t set
out to accomplish in the past. Because Clemens is such a team
player, heartbreaking tournament losses left him emotionally
drained for the individual tournament, which directly follows the
team competition.
Clemens lost in straight sets in the first round in 2003. He
lost in straight sets in the second round in 2002.
“I’m not going to tank again the next day at
individuals,” Clemens said. “Last year I couldn’t
get up the next day to play for myself. I don’t want this to
happen again to me. It’s not worth it for my senior year.
“That’s what happens when you focus so much on one
thing. If you want something so badly and you don’t get it,
you feel so low.”
Though Clemens has been around for many of the negatives, the
rest of this relatively inexperienced team, as far as collegiate
tennis goes, has been fortunate enough to avoid the valleys of
depression.
And when the Bruins set out on their quest this season, with
Clemens placing less emotional stress on the team aspect, newcomers
learning their roles and developing within the system, Martin will
again be reminded of the thing that this team has had for so many
years.
“If we work hard enough and compete hard enough, we know
we’ll have a chance,” he said. “And I don’t
think many teams can honestly feel that way.”
But the Bruins have felt this way before. There have been
chances upon chances, and it’s now been 19 years since the
team’s last national title.
Could this be the year?
There’s a chance.