Former Bruins were swiftly washed away from individual contention at the year’s third Grand Slam – along with the deluge of rain forcing delay after delay.
Championship hopes for the program now rest on two rackets. And if the two want to stand atop the podium, they’ll have to do it together.
Netherlands’ Jean-Julien Rojer and Japan’s Ena Shibahara represent the final alumni of UCLA men’s and women’s tennis still in the game heading into the second week at Wimbledon. As the No. 8 seed in the mixed doubles draw, the two defeated Great Britain wildcards Jodie Burrage and Lloyd Glasspool Friday and will battle Indonesia’s Aldila Sutjiadi and Netherlands’ Matwe Middelkoop in the second round Monday.
The other former Bruins preceding them fell in singles play – and they fell quickly.
World No. 54 Mackenzie McDonald, No. 58 Maxime Cressy and No. 65 Marcos Giron each failed to reach the third round of the men’s singles bracket. Giron was the sole member to find first-round success, defeating Bolivia’s Hugo Dellien 7-6(2), 6-4, 6-4 before Hungary’s Márton Fucsovics handed him a 7-6(2), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 defeat.
Despite an increase in first-serve percentage between his first- and second-round contest, Giron notched 11 fewer aces and won 20% fewer of his first-serve points than he did against Dellien. Fucsovics converted just four of the 15 break points surrendered by the 2014 NCAA singles champion, and that’s all he needed to claim victory.
McDonald was the only former Bruin to face seeded opposition in singles action. His loss came at the hands of No. 23 seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan, who was coming off a singles title at the Halle Open just the Sunday prior.
The two won a nearly-identical number of service points, but it was Bublik’s first serve that puzzled McDonald. With 24 aces, the former quadrupled the latter’s count while winning 90% of his first-serve points. After a 7-6(3) win in the first set, McDonald dropped each of the next three frames by a 6-4 margin, picking up just one break all match.
For Cressy, a quick exit came with extra sting.
The 2019 NCAA doubles champion is now projected to drop out of the top 100 of the ATP singles rankings for the first time since his maiden entry into the group on Jan. 10, 2022. It wasn’t too long ago that he reached his career high – No. 31 on Aug. 8 of that year.
Opposing Laslo Djere of Serbia, Cressy found himself in as tightly contested a match as any in the tournament. The 6-7(5), 7-6(3), 7-6(10-8), 7-6(9-7) result in favor of Djere was ultimately a consequence of Cressy’s high-risk serve-and-volley game.
With 21 double faults against 23 aces contributing to a 55% first-serve percentage, Cressy worked with an inefficiency that cost him in tiebreakers. He broke Djere just twice, relying on his first serve to create separation, while in practice, it rarely did. His singles quarterfinal drought now stands at 14 tournaments played since he reached the Montpellier title match in Feb. 2022.
Giron, McDonald and Cressy each tried their hand in doubles as well, but first-round woes only continued.
The three were each straight-setted in their opening matches of the format, leaving them with a collective 1-6 record across all play at Wimbledon. That represents the worst mark yet for the Bruin trifecta across the three slams that have been played so far this season.
Doubles struggles even plagued seeded entries among former Bruins. Shibahara – the No. 8 seed of the women’s doubles draw alongside Japan’s Shuko Aoyama – was upset 6-2, 6-4 by Georgia’s Oksana Kalashnikova and Belarus’s Iryna Shymanovich. Rojer reached the second round with El Salvador’s Marcelo Arévalo as the No. 7 seed but fell 6-3, 7-6(5) to Americans Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow.
But now, their paths converge in mixed doubles in the form of a true blue and gold tandem, and it’s not the first time they’ve been on the same side of the net on this stage.
After Rojer won men’s doubles and Shibahara took mixed doubles at the 2022 French Open, they teamed up for the first time ever at last year’s Wimbledon, forming the then-No. 1 seed. Their championship ties only resulted in a second-round appearance, but now in the same spot a year later, redemption is on the table.
And with the school’s big-name trinity out of the picture, there are new gems for UCLA tennis at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.
Comments are closed.