Friday, 5/23/97 UCLA in NCAA doubles trouble M.TENNIS: Pac-10
teams move on in tandem play while Bruin squads lose
By Vytas Mazeika Daily Bruin Staff After Thursday’s second-round
singles matches were done, five Pac-10 players still had a chance
to continue play in today’s singles and doubles NCAA championship
tournaments. Stanford’s Bob Bryan and Ryan Wolters, USC’s George
Bastl and UCLA’s Eric Taino and Kevin Kim all won their singles
matches and also played in the doubles tournament which started on
Thursday. And when the doubles matches ended, all of the non-UCLA
Pac-10 players advanced to the second-round of the doubles
tournament. The Taino-Alex Decret team and the Kim-Eric Lin team
both fell victims to the same Georgia doubles teams that defeated
them in the semifinal matches of the team competition. The other
Pac-10 players, however, played against new opponents and won. The
Wolters/Paul Goldstein team played the most competitive match of
the day as their game was extended to a tiebreaker every set.
Wolters and Goldstein eventually won the seesaw battle, 7-6, 6-7,
7-6. "That was unbelievable," Wolters said. "It looked like it was
over there. That was definitely one of the closest matches I have
ever played." With Wolters and Bob Bryan playing in both singles
and doubles tournaments, combined with Stanford’s participation in
every round of the NCAA team competition before winning the title,
fatigue may begin to bother the Stanford players. "If (fatigue)
hasn’t set in already, I’m sure it is going to start soon," Wolters
said. "It seems like I have been out on the court forever in the
last week." For Bob Bryan, though, the fatigue factor was of little
concern. After winning a quick three-set singles match, he and his
twin/teammate Mike disposed of their doubles opponent, 7-5, 6-2.
Yet at the moment, the Bryan twins would rather enjoy their team’s
national championship than concentrate on their individual matches.
"(The team title) is starting to sink in," Mike Bryan said. "I
watched (the finals) on ESPN today. This morning they had a
telecast on and it was pretty amazing. I mean, each day you just
wake up and say, ‘We’re NCAA champions.’ You’ll have that for a
year." To celebrate their NCAA title, the twins have kidnapped the
team’s trophy and slept with it in their room for the past couple
of nights. "I don’t know if I can get (the trophy) away from them,"
Wolters said. "I was holding on to it pretty tight after we won …
but I haven’t had a chance to get the trophy yet." USC’s Bastl-Kyle
Spencer team had a tough time with their opponents, winning 7-6,
7-6. Bastl, who easily won in singles, 6-3, 6-1, is proud to be
part of the NCAA individual tournament, but he and Spencer do not
feel their season was a complete success. "I think if we were to
win the doubles or win the singles, I think we’d both trade both of
those just to participate in the team tournament," Spencer said
after their doubles first-round victory, while Bastl immediately
concurred. * * * Thursday, both singles and doubles top seeds
suffered early-round upsets. In singles, Thomas Dupre of
Mississippi State fell in the second round to Ivan Rodrigo 6-4,
6-0, while in doubles Ashley Fisher and Jason Weir-Smith of Texas
Christian fell to Johan Landsberg and Martin Sjoqvist of
Mississippi, 6-3, 6-7, 7-5. Also in doubles, the No. 2-seeded team
of Kelly Gullet and Robert Lindset fell to Ed Carter and Sergio
Elias, 6-3, 6-4. Related Links: NCAA