EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Sophomore Jean-Julien
Rojer returns the ball in a match versus Arizona.
By Greg Schain
Daily Bruin Contributor
The top-ranked UCLA men’s tennis team continued its
dominance over inferior opponents, defeating No. 44 Kentucky 7-0 at
the Los Angeles Tennis Center on Tuesday.
The Bruins didn’t lose a set throughout the match, and
showed more enthusiasm then they did during their matches last
weekend against Arizona State and Arizona. During those matches,
the team looked overconfident, but nonetheless won both contests
7-0.
After the wins over the Arizona schools, UCLA Head Coach Billy
Martin and Assistant Coach Jason Sher were confused by the
lackadaisical attitude the Bruins showed on the court.
“We didn’t know what was going on,” Sher said.
“We know that we have to play at a high level for every
match, and maybe we thought the Arizona schools weren’t going
to be as tough, so we went through the motions.”
After those matches, Martin and Sher sat down with their team
and had a “heart-to-heart talk” about the importance of
effort and intensity in tennis. The talk paid off, and the team
worked hard during Tuesday’s match against Kentucky.
“They had a very good match,” Martin said. “I
was quite happy with the way they looked (on Tuesday).”
The Bruins’ top two singles players, sophomore Jean-Julien
Rojer and senior Jean-Noel Grinda, both played a little
overanxiously en route to victory. At No. 1 singles, Rojer defeated
senior Edo Bowano 6-3, 7-5. At No. 2, Grinda beat freshman Matthew
Emery 7-6(2), 6-4.
“I was real aggressive,” Rojer said. “I was
trying to pick up my intensity level after last weekend’s
(letdown).”
Grinda showed poise and hustle in his match, but was bothered by
Emery’s accurate shots.
“(Emery) kept Jean-Noel hustling the whole game,”
Martin said. “His style was not a particular one that
Jean-Noel matches up great with.”
UCLA’s other singles players had a much easier time,
despite the fact that they all had to move up a spot to cover for
the absence of regular No. 3 singles player freshman Tobias
Clemens. Clemens was out due to a strained calf.
At No. 3 singles, freshman Marcin Matkowski defeated freshman
Karim Benmansour 6-3, 6-3. At No. 4 singles sophomore Erfan
Djahangiri defeated junior Gustav Pousette 6-3, 6-4.
Rounding out the top six, sophomore Lassi Ketola defeated junior
Johan Grunditz 6-3, 6-1 and sophomore Travis Rettenmaier defeated
freshman Rahim Esmail 6-1, 6-1.
The bottom of UCLA’s lineup has been performing
particularly well lately. Martin is proud of the way his bottom
three singles spots are usually bankable for a victory.
“Being able to fight for every point is what makes the
good teams great,” he said. “Lots of good teams have
great players at one, two, and three and then the talent drops off.
But the match at No. 6 singles counts just as much as at No.
1.”
The win makes UCLA 10-0 on the season in dual-match play
although they have yet to play an opponent ranked higher than No.
22. But they did beat then-No. 1 Stanford 4-2 in a non-dual
situation at the National Collegiate Indoor Championships in
Seattle last month.
UCLA’s most important dual match to date will be played at
the Los Angeles Tennis Center today at 1:30 p.m. when the Bruins
host No. 10 Pepperdine. Pepperdine knocked UCLA out of the No. 1
ranking last season, and the Bruins were never able to recover the
position.
“It’ll be a great match,” Martin said.
“We are evenly matched all the way down on singles and
doubles. It’ll be a good college match, and I’m looking
forward to it.”