By Rekha Rao and Pauline VuDaily Bruin
Senior Staff
It was the UCLA men’s tennis team’s last
chance for a NCAA title this year, but both sophomore Jean-Julian
Rojer and senior Jean-Noel Grinda fell before reaching the
quarterfinals of the NCAA Individual Tournament in Athens, Ga. last
weekend.
Rojer and Grinda easily advanced past their first round matches
against Louisiana State University’s Daniel Kiernen (6-1,
6-4) and University of Arkansas’ Oskar Johansson, (5-7, 6-4,
6-2), respectively. In the process the unseeded Grinda managed to
upset Johansson, the No. 6 seed.
“I was pretty estactic with the win,” he said.
“Even though this year I haven’t performed as well as I
have other years, I knew I could beat anyone on any given
day.”
But in the second round, Grinda fell 6-4, 7-6 to Tulane’s
Michael Kogan.
“I was playing a guy who was very aggressive and took a
lot of chances,” Grinda said. “He played well and it
worked out for him.”
Rojer continued past the second round, beating Duke’s
Marko Cerenko 6-2, 2-6, 7-6. He was down 6-5 in the third set
tiebreaker, but battled back to clinch the victory.
“The first set I played really well, but then I lost my
concentration in the second and third set,” Rojer said.
“When I was down 4-1 in the third set something clicked. I
just kept playing and found a way to win the match.”
Rojer then moved to the round of 16, where he fell to No. 3
Matias Boeker of Georgia 6-1, 6-4.
“He was just more solid than I was that day,” Rojer
said. “I lost the first set and adjusted OK in the second set
but it was too late.”
He added that Boeker later won the Individual title on
Monday.
“I guess it wasn’t too bad of a loss,” he said
with a laugh.
Both Rojer and Grinda also played in the doubles tournament, but
they lost in the first round to Minnesota’s Jorge Duenas and
Harsh Mankad 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.
“We did pretty terrible, actually,” Grinda said.
“It was one of my biggest disappointments in my college
career.
“We were feeling pretty comfortable getting into the
tournament. Even though we weren’t seeded, we felt we
belonged in the seeded division,” he continued. “Maybe
we were a little overconfident.”
Rojer attributed the loss to fatigue from all the matches he and
Grinda had been playing throughout the last week at the NCAA
tournament.
“We were both mentally tired,” he said. “We
weren’t on the same page.”
The Bruin men suffered a 4-3 loss last week to Southern
Methodist in the NCAA team quarterfinals. UCLA finished the season
with a 23-3 record and was second in the Pac-10.