By Greg Schain
Daily Bruin Reporter
[email protected]
Cheaters.
Scoundrels.
Damn good tennis players.
Say what you will about the boys from top-seeded Georgia, but
whatever their method, they found a way to knock off UCLA, 4-2, in
the semifinals of the NCAA championship tournament Monday night in
College Station, Texas.
“They cheated,” said junior Rodrigo Grilli,
referring to several players on Georgia. “They made a lot of
bad calls.”
Grilli said cheating was rampant on Courts 3, 5 and 6, where
sophomore Marcin Matkowski, junior Erfan Djahangiri and junior
Lassi Ketola were playing, respectively.
UCLA ended up winning on Court 3, but both Djahangiri and Ketola
lost 6-4 in the third set to give the Bulldogs their third and
fourth victories, clinching the match for them.
“That’s sports,” UCLA head coach Billy Martin
said. “That’s life. We lost and there’s no
excuses, no sour grapes.”
Djahangiri, the team captain, was up a break at 4-3 in the third
before dropping the last three games. His opponent, Adam Seri, cut
his hand at 4-4 in the third set and proceeded to take an injury
timeout.
When he came out from the break, he quickly dominated Djahangiri
through some amazing footwork to record a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 win.
“He is real down,” Martin said after the match,
referring to Djahangiri. “Knowing the competitor that he is,
he feels lousy.”
Djahangiri’s story was indicative of the whole match for
the Bruins: they kept coming up just short.
Like in the doubles point, where junior Jean Julien-Rojer and
sophomore Marcin Matkowski, the No. 1 ranked doubles team in the
country, played an uninspired performance en route to an 8-2 loss
on court No. 1.
That loss could have been the difference, as UCLA lost at No. 3
doubles 8-6 to clinch the point for Georgia. The No. 2 doubles
tandem of sophomore Tobias Clemens and junior Lassi Ketola had
their match suspended at 7-7.
The Bruins also came up just short in singles.
Rojer tried to ignite the Bruins early, recording a 6-3, 6-4 win
over Lesley Joseph at No. 4 singles to tie the match at one
apiece.
But Rojer’s teammates couldn’t seem to follow his
lead.
Clemens lost the first set of his match to Matias Boeker, the
No. 1 ranked singles player in the nation, 6-4, and then dropped a
hard-fought second set 7-6(6) at No. 1 singles. Clemens had set
point serving at 6-5 in the tiebreaker, but dropped three straight
points to lose the match and give Georgia a 2-1 lead.
The Bulldogs took a 3-1 lead at No. 6 singles, where Lassi
Ketola, like Clemens, came up just short in losing to Nicolas
Boeker 6-2, 3-6, 6-4. Ketola overcame a 4-1 deficit in the third
set to get back on serve at 5-4, but couldn’t hold to get to
5-5.
“I came back and had serve at 5-4, but couldn’t hold
it,” Ketola said. “I made a couple of unforced errors,
and let the match slip away.”
Matkowski pulled the Bruins to within 3-2 to keep their finals
hopes alive, by recording a 7-5, 6-7(6), 6-1 win over Bo Hodge.
But soon after, Djahangiri lost his match, ending UCLA’s
season.
“This was a hell of a great match,” Martin said.
“It was two great teams playing against each other, and we
lost. If we had played tomorrow, maybe we would have won
tomorrow.”
The final match, No. 2 singles, was suspended with Grilli on the
verge of winning. He was up on Brandon Wagner, 6-7(2), 7-6(3),
5-3(susp) when Georgia clinched the win.
“I think it is even harder to lose like this than (getting
blown out),” Grilli said.
Georgia will meet No. 11 USC, who the Bruins beat in two out of
three matches this year, in the finals today. The Trojans have
pulled upsets over No. 6 Baylor, No. 3 Illinois, and No. 2
Tennessee to get to the championship game.
UCLA, which hasn’t won a championship since 1984, has
reached the semifinals in eight of the past 11 years.
Clemens, Grilli, and Matkowski will stay in College Station to
participate the singles tournament, but Monday’s tough loss
won’t be far from their minds.
“All the matches were so close, it could have gone either
way,” Ketola said. “We just got unlucky on a few
points.”