For six years, Raymond Ajoc lived about 100 steps away from a tennis court. But, for the six years before high school, he had never used it. It was his freshman year of high school and he had recently seen Rafael Nadal win the French Open with a gritty playing style that defied Ajoc’s preconceived […]
Category Archives: Men’s Tennis
Sophomore Joseph Di Guilio overcomes adversity, finds solace in tennis
Practice was winding down. The UCLA men’s tennis team was finishing stretching and packing up. Players were talking about where they were going to eat, while others were talking about what midterms they had to study for that week. All except sophomore Joseph Di Giulio. Di Giulio asked assistant coach Adrien Puget if he could […]
No. 10 men’s tennis sweeps St. Mary’s in showcase of squad depth
With his team set to head to the ITA Division I National Men’s Team Indoor Championship Tuesday, coach Billy Martin used a pair of home matches this weekend to keep his squad prepared from top to bottom. In Sunday’s match against St. Mary’s, Martin rested sophomore Mackenzie McDonald and senior Dennis Mkrtchian, who have thus […]
Men’s tennis works overtime to prepare for third dual match weekend
Forget and get better. That is what the mentality has been for the UCLA men’s tennis team this past week. The No. 10 Bruins (3-2) were working an intense practice schedule to forget last weekend’s disappointing face off against South East Conference teams Georgia and Florida where the Bruins came away 0-2 from the weekend. […]
No. 7 Mackenzie McDonald dominates SEC/Pac-12 Showdown singles play
Sophomore Mackenzie McDonald said he was not disappointed in himself. His coach was. “It wasn’t anything about him playing badly; he just lost concentration,” said coach Billy Martin after McDonald, the No. 7 singles player in the nation, was pushed to the brink in the first set against Pepperdine’s unranked Guilherme Hadlich Jan. 23. “He’s […]
Men’s tennis suffers disappointing losses against ranked SEC opponents
The UCLA men’s tennis team went into the Southeastern Conference/Pac-12 Challenge this year trying to repeat history, only to come up short in both dual matches this past weekend. Last year, when UCLA went up against SEC powerhouses University of Georgia and University of Florida, the Bruins won both matches, despite having doubles trouble. This […]
Bruins face top-25 teams in weekend matches for SEC/Pac-12 Challenge
Though Westwood and Athens, Ga., are over 2,000 miles apart, UCLA coach Billy Martin is no stranger to the national prominence of the Georgia men’s tennis program. Having fallen at the hands of the Bulldogs in three NCAA Championships as a coach, Martin will once again bring his Bruins to Athens, Ga. this weekend. This […]