COURTNEY STEWART/Daily Bruin Sophomore Tobias
Clemens slices a backhand return against USC last
week.
By Gilbert Quiñonez
Daily Bruin Contributor
How can a 3-6 team be No. 14 in the country? It can when all of
those losses come against top 20 teams, as is the case with Duke,
who will come to the Los Angeles Tennis Center to play UCLA on
Wednesday.
“They’re well deserving of their ranking,”
UCLA head coach Billy Martin said. “They’ve had such a
tough schedule, all of their losses are against tough teams, and
they have beaten some pretty good teams.”
One of those tough teams that has beaten Duke is No. 4 UCLA.
They met at the National Indoors in Kentucky earlier this season,
and UCLA won 4-1.
“We need to get ready for competing against Duke,”
junior Jean-Julien Rojer said. “Last time we beat them, and
we should be prepared because since we won last time they’ll
be looking to get us back.”
Also, as the name of the tournament indicates, the previous
meeting between the two teams was played indoors, and both teams
consider themselves to play better outdoors.
“Duke will be an interesting match,” No. 1 starter
Tobias Clemens said. “We’re pretty even with them. Last
time we played in an indoors court, and it’ll be different
next week ““ it will also be the last home game of the winter
quarter, and we’re looking forward to it.”
The match will feature two top players, Duke’s Phillip
King, the two-time U.S. junior champion, and UCLA’s
Clemens.
“I tried to recruit him,” Martin said.
“He’s a great player, and Toby and him played a great
match that was stopped because the game was already
decided.”
All signs point to Wednesday’s match being a great
one.
“We know this is a good team,” Martin said.
“We’re not going to let our guard down.”