BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Senior
Jean-Noel Grinda watches his shot in the regional
round of the NCAA tournament. The Bruins advanced in the tournament
and will play on Tuesday. NCAA Round of 16
UCLA 4 Washington 1
By Greg Schain
Daily Bruin Contributor
The No. 2 seeded UCLA men’s tennis team cleared another
obstacle in their quest for a national championship yesterday,
defeating Washington 4-1 in the round of 16 at the NCAA
Championships in Athens, Ga.
Some critics worried that the Bruins might overlook Washington,
whom they had defeated 6-1 earlier in the season, and focus on
later matches in the semifinals and finals against possible
opponents Georgia and Stanford.
But senior Jean-Noel Grinda said the Bruins weren’t going
to overlook Washington.
“Our focus right now is on Washington, and we are going to
do the best job that we can to get them first,” he said at a
pre-match press conference.
Grinda and his teammates backed that statement up from the
beginning, playing all-around solid doubles. The Bruins won at No.
2 and No. 3 doubles in order to claim the double point.
At No. 2, the team of freshman Marcin Matkowski and sophomore
Travis Rettenmaier beat sophomores Dillon Ruby and Ari Strasberg
8-5. No. 3 also secured a victory, as freshman Tobias Clemens and
sophomore Lassi Ketola beat junior Andrej Bizjak and sophomore Matt
Hanlin 8-3.
The No. 1 doubles match was terminated after UCLA claimed the
doubles point. In this tournament, as soon as one team wins two
doubles matches ““ and if the third is still being played
““ the game is cancelled in order to save time, since its
outcome is meaningless.
Likewise, once a team reaches the necessary four match wins, all
other matches still in progress are terminated because their
results do not affect the overall outcome.
And the overall outcome was positive for UCLA in singles, just
as it had been in doubles.
Matkowski was the first player to finish, handily beating senior
Andy Posavac 6-3, 6-4 at No. 4 singles.
Grinda finished a few minutes later, defeating junior Andre
Bizjak at No. 2 singles 7-6(3), 6-3.
Clemens clinched the match for the Bruins, winning 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
against senior Jeremy Berman at No. 3 singles.
The only team member who dropped a match for UCLA was sophomore
Jean-Julien Rojer, who was defeated by Hanlin 6-3, 5-7, 6-2. Rojer
has been struggling lately, dropping his first set in both matches
at the Regionals before seeing both matches terminated.
The singles matches were all played indoors, since it started to
rain during the doubles. After a 53-minute rain delay, the NCAA
decided to move the match indoors.
Since there are only four courts in Georgia’s indoor
facility, No. 5 singles and No. 6 singles had to wait until two
matches finished in order to start playing. Therefore, they were
not able to finish because UCLA had already clinched the match.
The win over Washington secures the Bruins a spot in the
quarterfinals, where they will play No. 7 Southern Methodist
University at 4 p.m. Eastern Time today.
SMU defeated Mississippi 4-2 on Sunday to advance to the
quarterfinals.
Originally, the Round of 16 was scheduled to be played Saturday,
with the quarterfinals on Sunday, but inclement weather pushed
everything back one day.
Going into Sunday’s match, UCLA Head Coach Billy Martin
said he was feeling good about where his team stands and feels that
the Bruins have a legitimate shot at the championship title.
“We are more confident this year than we were last
year,” he said. “We have a full roster and no
injuries.”
The team tournament concludes on Wednesday afternoon, and the
individual part of the tournament starts Thursday.
UCLA has two players, Grinda and Rojer, competing in the
individual draw.