SAN FRANCISCO “”mdash; The NCAA Quarterfinals on Sunday were
unlike anything ever seen before. In fact, the entire tournament
was a first for college tennis, with both women’s and
men’s competitions being held at the same venue.
The new format might offer more in terms of tennis spectacle,
but from a team point of view, the idea got mixed reviews.
“I was not supportive of the idea from the start, and now
that we have gone to the first one, I am not a big fan,” UCLA
coach Billy Martin said.
Court occupation was on tight schedule all day, and when the
weather took a turn for the worse and matches were delayed by up to
one and a half hours, things got even tougher
“I have had rainouts before but never faced anything like
that,” Martin said. “It was chaotic in a lot of
ways.”
It started raining at about midday on Sunday. All the
men’s quarterfinals were scheduled for that afternoon. The
UCLA-Pepperdine matchup was originally expected to begin around 1
p.m. After deliberation in light of the rainy conditions, the NCAA
committee decided to suspend the women’s semifinals until the
weather cleared up, and sent the men’s teams back their
hotels until further notice. By 3:30, teams were informed that they
would play indoors at 5 at the San Francisco Tennis Club, a good 30
miles from the Stanford campus.
“I just find it stupid that we had to drive more than an
hour to play indoors,” junior Chris Surapol said. “The
whole day was delayed. We lost our rhythm. I am just not very happy
with anything right now.”
Indoor tennis is a different game than the one played by most
college tennis teams, especially those from Southern California
such as UCLA and Pepperdine. The courts are much faster indoors,
the ball does not respond in the same way, and big hitters are
definitely at an advantage.
“We had twenty minutes to adjust to the courts when it
takes at least two days to get used to a different surface,”
Surapol said.
UCLA and Pepperdine are two schools that enjoy outdoor tennis
under year-round sunshine, so going indoors was not going to be an
advantage to either team.
To both sides, the decision to take men’s tennis indoors
in San Francisco seemed a perplexing one.
“Women’s tennis would be much less affected to go
indoors than men’s,” Surapol said. “We already
had an indoors national tournament. Why would we have another
one?”
With three of the four men’s quarter-finals going on at
the same time in the San Francisco Tennis Club, the venue was loud
throughout the matches. Calls could not be heard, fans celebrating
a point from one match echoed throughout the twelve courts, and the
constant noise emerging from all corners made for a unique
environment.
While Surapol and Martin agree that the conditions were
something of a disturbance, some players managed to get around the
potential problem.
“It was different, but it was the same for everyone and I
managed to remain concentrated on my match,” freshman Haythem
Abid said.
But the Bruins did not manage to cope with the hectic
rescheduling, folding to Pepperdine 4-1.
No player on the team used the location as an excuse for the
defeat, on the grounds that all teams were faced with the same
situation.
Still, the Bruins would have been much happier to end their
season ““ win or lose ““ outdoors, where they are more
comfortable with the style of play.
“It was a great tournament, but very unfortunate to have
to go indoors,” Martin said.