Daily Bruin File Photo UCLA’s Chris
Sands finishes a stroke in a match last spring. The team
scored well at the ITA regional tournament this weekend.
By Hannah Gordon
Daily Bruin Contributor
The UCLA men’s tennis team played their best tournament
this year at the ITA Regional Championships in Malibu over the
weekend. Coach Billy Martin said, “I’m really, really
happy with how we played.”
Senior Jean-Noel Grinda and sophomore Jean-Julien Rojer, the No.
2 seeded doubles team, won the championship. Grinda nearly took the
singles’ title as well, but fell to USC rival Andrew Park in
the final.
The regular season will not begin until March, but the preseason
tournament could affect rankings when seedings come out.
The strong showing at the tournament was also important to the
team after discouraging play at recent tournaments, including the
National Clay Court Tournament, the National All-American
Tournament, and the Southern California Intercollegiate
Championships. Martin sat the team down and talked about the fact
that they were not playing well technically.
“We were making too many unforced errors. We were beating
ourselves,” he said.
At Malibu this weekend,though, many UCLA players did well,
making it to the quarterfinals. Grinda, Rojer, freshmen Tobias
Clemens and Derrick Nguyen, sophomores Lassi Ketola and Travis
Rettenmaier, and senior Chris Sands defeated players from several
Southern California schools. Three UCLA players made the singles
semifinals and three Bruin teams made the doubles semifinals as
well, showing the depth of the team.
After defeating USC’s Daniel Langre 6-1, 6-4 in the
quarterfinal, second-seeded Grinda had to play his own teammate in
the semifinals. He defeated Ketola 6-2, 6-4 on Saturday. Ketola,
however, played impressively.
“He played his best tennis ever,” Martin said of
Ketola, who had two upsets, defeating seventh-seeded Ryan Moore of
USC in the first round and fourth-seeded Al Garland of Pepperdine
in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, “The Bruinbuster,” No. 1 seed Park,
defeated UCLA’s Clemens in the quarterfinals 7-6, 6-1, and
Rojer in the semifinals 6-3, 6-1.
Park continued his winning streak Sunday, defeating Grinda 6-2,
6-4, in the final and becoming the singles champion.
“Park has stepped up his game since last year,”
Martin said.
Grinda also played well and, most importantly, he is healthy
after having shoulder surgery last year. The consolation singles
final also pitted UCLA against USC with Rettenmaier, a Bruin,
losing to Nick Rainey 6-0, 6-1.
It was UCLA versus UCLA for the doubles championship with Grinda
and Rojer squaring off against Rettenmaier and freshman Erfan
Djahangiri. Grinda and Rojer came back from a four-game deficit to
win 9-8 (5). The team has been working on doubles drills since
their disappointing doubles performance in their recent
tournaments. Their efforts definitely paid off.
The doubles championship title earns UCLA an automatic spot at
the Rolex National Indoor Championships in Dallas in February.
Before that, the Bruins will compete in the Sherwood Collegiate
Cup, Jan. 13-16. With their strong showing this weekend, the
men’s tennis team looks ready to go in January.