DAVE HILL/ Daily Bruin Senior Staff Sophomore
Travis Rettenmaier hits a backhand during the
unofficial match against players from the College of the
Desert.
By Scott Schultz
Daily Bruin Staff
Although this was a competition between two No. 1-ranked tennis
teams, the atmosphere at the Los Angeles Tennis Center was laid
back.
Tuesday afternoon the No. 1-ranked Bruins defeated the College
of the Desert 6-1 in a friendly scrimmage. The Roadrunners, who are
coached by former Bruin player Marcin Rozpedski, are the No.
1-ranked junior college team in California.
The match marked the first time that UCLA Head Coach Billy
Martin ever coached against one of his former players.
“I feel really old today,” Martin said with a laugh.
“I think I recognize some of my plays.”
Although the Roadrunners are a junior college team, they played
the Bruins tough. They came close to taking the doubles point,
losing two sets 8-6.
In the No. 2 singles match, Bruin freshman Tobias Clemens
returned to action after injuring his foot more than a month ago in
a match against USC. He lost his match 6-4, 4-6 (7-4).
“(My foot) is a little sore right now, because I’ve
been practicing for a week,” Clemens said. “I’m
at 60 percent court condition. That’s normal after not
playing 36 days.”
Clemens said he will definitely play in both matches of this
weekend’s home stand against Washington and Oregon.
The scrimmage offered opportunities for the Bruin reserves to
keep sharp by playing them in intercollegiate action.
“I’m not in the lineup right now, so I try to take
advantage of matches like these to work on parts of my game,”
said Bruin reserve Derrick Nguyen.
The atmosphere was more of a goodwill game than a serious
competition. The players weren’t wearing uniforms, there were
no line judges and they didn’t bother posting scores until
the end of each set.
For Rozpedski, the match provided him the opportunity to give
his players the toughest competition that they will face this
year.
“It’s a challenge for me and the team to be here
today,” Rozpedski said. “It’s important that we
gain experience here if we didn’t win.
The Roadrunners also took the No. 3 singles match to a
tiebreaker before sophomore Erfan Djahangiri eventually prevailed
4-6, 6-4 (10-8).
“I told (my players) that we are tough or else (UCLA)
wouldn’t have us here today,” Rozpedski said.
“I’m proud of how hard we tried to win.”
“This team could hang tough with 90 percent of the
Division I teams, so I knew these guys would play us tough,”
Martin said. “That’s why I’m glad we scrimmaged
with them. It will help us with this weekend’s
games.”
At the end of the matches both teams engaged in friendly
conversation, and they agreed that they would like to try this
again next season.