COURTNEY STEWART Senior Jean-Noel Grinda
makes contact against Stanford Friday. The Bruins lost 4-3 to the
Cardinal but beat Cal on Saturday 5-2. Stanford d.
UCLA 4-3 UCLA d. CAL 5-2
By Rekha Rao
Daily Bruin Contributor
The No. 1 ranked UCLA men’s tennis team sprung into action
at the Los Angeles Tennis Center this weekend with high intensity
but suffered its first loss of the season to Stanford 4-3 on Friday
and then came back to beat Cal 5-2 on Saturday.
The Bruins (17-1, 4-1 Pac-10) started off strong Friday during
doubles, but eventually lost the point when the two teams of
freshman Marcin Matkowski and sophomore Travis Rettenmaier, and
seniors Jean-Noel Grinda and Chris Sands fell to the Cardinal 8-6
and 8-3, respectively.
“I am really proud of our guys. They came very close to
beating Stanford, and that is a real challenge,” Head Coach
Billy Martin said.
But the final decision on the match came down to the last
singles match between Matkowski and Cardinal
junior K.J. Hippensteel. After doubles and five singles matches,
the Bruins and the Cardinal were tied at 3-3. Matkowski forced a
third set between the two players, but Hippensteel eventually took
the match 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
“The team as a whole reacted pretty well. It was a not an
easy situation and we came really close to winning,” Grinda
said.
This weekend was especially hard for the Bruins because of the
loss of their top two players, freshman Tobias Clemens due to an
injury suffered during last week’s match against USC, and
sophomore Jean-Julian Rojer, who is playing in the Davis Cup for
his native Netherlands.
“(The missing players) was a factor, but once you go out
there, it is still the same thing,” Grinda said. “We
are still six players against six other players. It is too easy to
complain about that. We have a very deep team, and everyone played
their hardest.”
Other players also had a positive outlook concerning the loss
and the missing players.
“It is a pretty good sign. We almost beat Stanford, and
our two best players are not here,” sophomore Erfran
Djahangiri said.
On Saturday the Bruins’ match against Cal was delayed due
to rain, but UCLA still came out strong after bad weather and the
loss to Stanford the previous day.
They started by winning all three doubles matches and easily
securing the doubles point for the Bruins. Clemens played on the
No. 2 doubles team with Grinda, as he tried to ease his recovery
from the injury by playing only the doubles match against Cal.
In singles Matkowski, Djahangiri, and sophomore Lassi Ketola all
had wins for the Bruins. Grinda and Sands suffered losses, 7-5, 6-2
and 7-5, 6-1, to John Paul Fruttero and Erik Dmytruk respectively,
but the Bruins eventually won 5-2.
Although they lost to Stanford, the Bruins have time to seek
revenge when they travel up to Northern California to face the two
teams again in two weeks.
“We are lucky we can get right back at them in two weeks,
and the win will be even sweeter up there,” Grinda said.
“We have had our fair share of good luck, and maybe things
didn’t go our way this weekend,” Martin added.
“These are tough matches to lose, but hopefully we can learn
something from this and play better the next time.”
The Bruins play next on Wednesday when they take on the College
of the Desert at the LATC at 2:30 pm.