After nearly three weeks on the road, the No. 3 UCLA men’s
tennis team was happy to be home Wednesday.
Nonetheless, the most compelling homecoming of the day was for
Virginia freshmen and southern California natives Doug Stewart and
Rylan Rizza who beat their Bruin counterparts in UCLA’s
eventual 4-3 victory at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
Stewart, who was recruited by UCLA last year, surprised Tobias
Clemens in the No. 1 singles position 3-6, 6-4, 3-6.
“You know he was going to come out and play real
hard,” UCLA head coach Billy Martin said of Stewart’s
performance. “He had his family here, and you know he’s
going to want to show UCLA that (they should have recruited more).
He did a great job of that.”
Unfortunately, Martin wasn’t as impressed with his own
team.
“We weren’t sharp, there’s no doubt about
it,” Martin said. “But I didn’t expect us to look
that sharp.”
The men’s tennis team had just come off its first loss of
the season 12 days earlier against then-No. 3 Florida at the ITA
National Team Indoor Championships. Wednesday’s match against
No. 52 Virginia marked the team’s return to competition, and
although it should have been a simple match for the Bruins, their
time off showed.
UCLA jumped out to an early lead by winning the doubles point,
but then began to struggle in singles play.
In the No. 1 and No. 3 singles positions, national No. 8 Clemens
and unranked Rodrigo Grilli failed to find a successful rhythm.
They had frustrating first sets in which they missed many easy
put-aways. Although they both won their second sets handily, they
eventually lost. Grilli’s final score against Rylan Rizza was
4-6, 6-0, 4-6.
“Usually I do a good job, but today I wasn’t really
into the match,” Clemens said.
Nationally ranked No. 87 Lassi Ketola, playing in the No. 6
singles position for UCLA, leaped to an early lead against Stephen
Nolen in the first set, before collapsing and losing 6-0, 5-7,
3-6.
“I don’t know what happened to (Ketola) in the
second and third sets,” Martin said.
In the No. 5 singles position, No. 64 Erfan Djahangiri lost his
first set, but battled back to trounce Virginia’s Chris
Gonyer 2-6, 6-2, 6-0.
No. 45 Marcin Matowski and No. 26 Chris Lam were two brights
spots for the Bruin team in the No. 2 and No. 4 positions. Both
beat their opponents in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2 and 7-6 (6), 7-5,
respectively. Lam’s victory was particularly sweet as it
ended up clinching the match for the Bruins.
“It added pressure, but I liked it.” Lam said.
“It got people out to the backcourts and gave me a little
more fire.”
The Bruins return to action at LATC on Friday against No. 17
USC.