UCLAd. Arizona St. 7 – 0 UCLA
d. Arizona7-0
By Rekha Rao
Daily Bruin Contributor
The UCLA men’s tennis team continued its 11-match winning
streak, beating Arizona State on Friday and Arizona on Saturday by
scores of 7-0 and 7-0.
On Friday, the No. 1 ranked Bruins secured the doubles point
after the No. 2 team of sophomore Travis Rettenmaier and freshman
Marcin Matkowski and No. 3 team of sophomores Efran Djahangiri and
Lassi Ketola both won their matches with scores of 8-6 and 8-2,
respectively. The Bruins’ No. 1 team of sophomore Jean-Julien
Rojer and senior Jean-Noel Grinda, who are ranked ninth in the
nation, held on to win 9-7.
But the Bruins were not so satisfied with their doubles
play.
“We came up a little flat with our doubles, but we managed
to win,” Grinda said.
In singles, all six players won their matches, forcing the 7-0
win over Arizona State. Two matches played by Grinda and Djahangiri
went to three sets, but the Bruin players held off Arizona State as
they headed into their second match in the weekend’s
doubleheader.
“Arizona State is a better team than Arizona, but we
struggled a little bit because of the lack of practice from
rain,” senior Chris Sands said.
UCLA had to play without starting freshman Tobias Clemens, who
was injured last weekend.
On Saturday, doubles again became more of a problem for the
Bruins.
The team secured the doubles point after Ketola and Djahangiri,
and Rettenmaier and Matakowski pulled off victories, 8-5 and 9-8
(4) respectively. But Grinda and Rojer had more problems, falling
to Steven Capriati and Carl Hagman of ASU, 9-8 (4).
“On Friday we were bouncing around on the court, but today
we had no energy,” Grinda said. We were sluggish in doubles
and lost that match, and had to grind it out the hardest
way.”
In singles action, all six players held on for victories. Grinda
struggled against Arizona’s Tom Lloyd forcing tiebreakers in
both sets, but came out victorious, 7-6(5), 7-6(1).
The energy level and attitude was a major problem for the
Bruins.
“I feel like maybe we were a little tired, mentally and
physically,” Head Coach Billy Martin said. “With the
weather, we haven’t had solid practices and are trying to get
caught up to the level that we were playing at before the weather
turned bad.”
“We have gotten some good wins, but I cannot say our level
of play is where I feel really good about it,” Martin
added.
Although they held on to victories in both matches, there was
not a feeling of complete satisfaction.
“Both days we came out with no energy, and feeling like we
were the better team, and showing it in our play,” Rojer
said.
Up next for the Bruins is the University of Kentucky on Tuesday
and Pepperdine on Thursday, both at the LATC.