CHRIS BACKLEY/Daily Bruin Sophomore Marcin
Matkowski smashes a serve in his match against UNLV.
By Gilbert Quiñonez
Daily Bruin Contributor
Anyone walking by the Los Angeles Tennis Center during the
beginning of yesterday’s tennis match would have thought the
Bruins would be the victims of an upset.
Those walking by near the end of the match wondered if the
players from UNLV actually knew how to play tennis. In a match that
started off scary, the Bruins rallied to beat UNLV 7-0.
Lassi Ketola and Alberto Francis were losing their doubles match
to UNLV’s Leslie Eisinga and Avirim Saloman 1-4 and 4-6
before finally winning the pro set, 8-6.
“We just had to stay positive,” Francis said.
“We knew it was OK, we just had to pump each other
up.”
Erfan Djahangiri and Rodrigo Grilli trailed the Runnin’
Rebels’ Thomas Schneiter and Andreas Mauer 2-5 before coming
back to win in a tie-breaker, 9-8 (8).
“They didn’t hang their heads, we’ve been in
enough tough battles to know it’s not over till it’s
over,” head coach Billy Martin said. “This is the tough
test we needed to get ready for USC (on Friday).”
In the other doubles match, the No. 1 doubles team in the
nation, UCLA’s Marcin Matkowski and Jean-Julien Rojer, beat
Romain Tug and Thomas Michaud 8-4, making sure the Bruins took the
doubles point.
UCLA then went on to win all six singles matches, with only one
of them going to three sets ““ Grilli beat Saloman in a very
close 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 match, by far the longest of the singles
matches.
“He didn’t play very well, but hung in there,”
Martin said. “Most players can win when they play well, but
most can’t when they don’t play well.”
Tobias Clemens, who didn’t play doubles in
yesterday’s game, won his singles match very easily, 6-2,
6-1, against Michaud.
“I just played very, very well,” Clemens said.
“I was in good shape, and gained confidence throughout the
match.”
It’s not that Clemens needed any more confidence. He has
gone 16-1 in his last 17 matches and hasn’t lost since
October.
In the other singles matches, Matkowski beat Schneiter 6-1, 6-4,
Rojer beat Tug 6-2, 6-4, Djahangiri beat Eisinga 6-2, 6-4, and
Ketola beat Maurer 6-2, 6-2.
Tuesday marked the first match for Francis, who is recovering
from an ankle injury. Francis is at about 75-80 percent right now,
and hopes to be at full strength in March.
“It was a greet feeling. I hadn’t been out there in
a while,” he said.
To make it even harder, Francis was playing with Ketola, his
doubles partner for the first time.
“They did a great job together, it shows character,”
said Clemens, Ketola’s old partner. “You have to know
each other. It’s very difficult to play with a new doubles
partner.”