JONATHAN YOUNG/Daily Bruin Sophomore Tobias
Clemens helps the Bruins beat San Diego State 4-1 in
Sunday’s second-round NCAA match.
By Greg Schain
Daily Bruin Reporter
[email protected]
This weekend’s NCAA Regionals, which is the first two
rounds of the NCAA championships tournament, was supposed to be
just a formality for the No. 4 seed UCLA men’s tennis
team.
In over 50 years, they had never had very much trouble advancing
through to the Sweet 16, and this year was supposed to be the same
way.
But San Diego State, ranked No. 29 going into the tournament,
gave the Bruins a run for their money on Sunday at the Los Angeles
Tennis Center. The 4-1 UCLA victory fails to indicate how
competitive the match really was.
The trouble for the Bruins started with doubles. At No. 2, the
tandem of junior Rodrigo Grilli and freshman Alberto Francis took a
whooping, losing 8-1.
“We really got it embarrassingly handed to us at No.
2,” head coach Billy Martin said.
At No. 1, junior Jean-Julien Rojer and sophomore Marcin
Matkowski, who are ranked as the No. 1 doubles team in the country,
lost 8-6 to San Diego State’s Olivier Maiberger and Ryan
Redondo, who are ranked No. 3 in the country.
“We didn’t come out sluggish or slow,” Rojer
said. “It was just a few important points that we lost that
made the difference.’
The No. 3 doubles match, featuring juniors Erfan Djahangiri and
Lassi Ketola, was suspended with UCLA down 7-6 because SDSU had
already clinched the doubles point.
“We all came out mentally tired,” Ketola said.
“We were a little afraid, because in the NCAAs we are
supposed to win, and you end up thinking too much about
it.”
After the doubles loss, the Bruins regrouped and fought their
own sluggishness by grinding out their singles matches.
Ketola recorded the first victory for UCLA, defeating junior
Gabe Coren 6-3, 6-3 at No. 6 singles.
Rojer finished soon after, beating junior Travis Hasson 6-3,
7-6(5) at No. 4 to give UCLA a 2-1 lead. The match represents a
reassuringly strong performance for Rojer, who has been struggling
for much of the season.
“I played pretty well,” Rojer said. “My
concentration level was a lot higher today than during the season.
I was a lot more focused.”
UCLA went up 3-1 after Marcin Matkowski finished up a 6-4, 6-3
win over sophomore Felix Hardt at No. 3.
The clinching win came a short time later, when sophomore Tobias
Clemens recorded a 6-2, 7-6(3) victory over fellow German Olivier
Maiberger at No. 1. Clemens won the match despite a nagging
shoulder injury that kept him out of Saturday’s match against
UC Santa Barbara. The injury also kept him from practicing much of
the week.
“That was a hell of a gutsy effort by Tobias,”
Martin said. “He wasn’t able to hit for three or four
days out of the last 12, and he gave a hell of an effort. It was as
good as I’ve seen in my coaching career.”
At No. 2 singles, Grilli was winning in the third set when the
match was suspended, because UCLA had clinched the match.
Djahangiri was losing in the third set at No. 5.
The Bruins now head to College Station, Texas next weekend to
play for the NCAA Championship, which they haven’t won since
1984.
UCLA’s path to the final four looks easy. Their next
opponent is Florida, who barely squeaked past South Florida, 4-3,
in their second round matchup.
And fifth seeded Stanford, who the Bruins were on line to play
in the Elite Eight, was upset by Washington in the second round,
and now are out of the tournament.
“Our spirits are up, and we are focused and
determined,” Rojer said. “Everyone seems to be fighting
and determined to win, and that is good for us.”
“I feel we are good enough to win the whole thing,”
Martin added. “But it doesn’t mean a hell of a lot when
you play doubles the way we did today.”