PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Erfan
Djahangiri takes a swing at the ball earlier this
season.
By Rekha Rao
Daily Bruin Contributor
Although they lost in the first round of play, a pair of UCLA
men’s tennis players came back to win the doubles final in
the consolation round, and one of its members reached the finals of
the singles competition in the consolation bracket.
The Bruin team of senior Jean-Noel Grinda and sophomore
Jean-Julian Rojer traveled to the Rolex National Intercollegiate
Indoor Championships at the Brookhaven Country Club in Dallas last
weekend.
On Thursday, the first day of play, Grinda fell to the
tournament’s No. 1 seed, SMU’s Genius Chidzikwe. Grinda
won the first set 6-4, but lost the last two 6-3, 6-3. Rojer also
lost in the first round of regular play to Matias Boeker of
Georgia, 6-4, 6-2.
“We started off pretty bad, but both of us had really
difficult draws. It was hard coming out and playing on indoor
courts,” Grinda said.
Rojer said the indoor courts suited his game more.
“It was indoors and fits my game well, but I was looking
forward to playing some better matches in the back draw,”
Rojer said. “The first round is always a tough round. My
opponent was good and I knew it was going to be a tough
match.”
Grinda and Rojer lost in the first round of doubles regular play
against second-seeded Boeker and Travis Parrott of Georgia, 7-6
(3), 7-6 (4), losing both sets in a tiebreaker.
“These are all good players. Everyone is good at this
tournament,” said UCLA head coach Billy Martin.
Grinda and Rojer then moved to the consolation round in both
singles and doubles play. In the singles round of 16, Grinda beat
Mississippi State’s Rene Combette 7-5, 6-2, and advanced on
Friday after a withdraw from another player.
The singles consolation quarterfinal was held on Friday night,
when Grinda beat Radovan Chrz of West Florida 6-3, 7-6 (4). Rojer
advanced by beating SMU’s Alexis Rudzinski 6-2, 6-2.
In the semifinals Grinda fell to Georgia’s Bo Hodge. Rojer
came from behind to defeat Brian Vahaly of Virginia 1-6, 6-3, 6-4
and advance to the consolation title match. There, Hodge defeated
Rojer 6-3, 6-1.
“Both of them had some good wins in the back draw of the
singles, and from what they have told me, both are happy with the
way that they played this weekend,” Martin said.
The consolation play is only available for individual
tournaments, such as this one and the NCAA tournament in May.
In doubles play, Grinda and Rojer led the way through the
consolation round. They started by beating UNLV’s Gegor
Skorin and Nenad Zivkovic 6-3, 6-3. In the semifinals, they beat
Virginia’s Huntley Montgomery and Vahaly 6-2, 6-2. In finals
action, the Bruin team took the consolation doubles title, beating
Rodrigo Echagaray and Eleazar Magellan of Kansas 6-7 (3), 6-4,
6-3.
“We got the feeling back from last year this weekend, we
share the coverage of the court,” Grinda said. “We
lacked that in the last two weeks, and now we are moving as a
team.”
Rojer agrees and looks forward to the rest of the matches this
upcoming season.
“Right now, we are finally starting to click again. We
have been struggling on return games, but the indoors in Dallas
really improved our game,” Rojer said.
Next up for the whole Bruin team is a home match against Georgia
Tech on Friday.