Marcin Matkowski watches as his doubles
partner, Travis Rettenmaier, returns the ball
during a match against Georgia Tech on Friday.
UCLA d. Georgia Tech 7-0
By Greg Schain
Daily Bruin Contributor
Georgia Tech was swept out of the Los Angeles Tennis Center
Friday when the No. 3 UCLA men’s tennis team beat the No. 72
Yellow Jackets 7-0.
Leading the way for the Bruins at No. 1 singles was senior
Jean-Noel Grinda, who defeated sophomore Roger Anderson 6-7 (7),
6-1, 6-2. Grinda was tight in the first set, missing easy service
returns. But backed by a strong serve and consistent ground
strokes, he managed to pick up his game in the second set and
cruise to an easy victory.
“I totally loosened up (after the first set),”
Grinda said. “I started being steady on the baseline and
taking my chances at the right time. That’s what I
wasn’t doing at first.”
At No. 2 singles, Bruin freshman Tobias Clemens gave an
impressive showing, defeating senior Romain Coirault 6-2, 6-2.
Clemens combined an excellent serve with solid returns and good
shot selection in cruising to the victory.
“I played free and went for my shots today,” Clemens
said.
Clemens feels that the key to his victory was setting the tone
early in the match. After winning his opening service game, he fell
down 0-40 on Coirault’s serve before rallying back to win the
game.
“That was the first little win for me in the game,”
Clemens said. “After that, it was easy flowing.”
UCLA assistant coach Jason Sher was also impressed by
Clemens’ performance.
“He played really well today,” Sher siad. “He
played confidently. He’s been working hard in practice and
came out playing very aggressively.”
The rest of the Bruins also played solidly in singles. In the
third spot, freshman Marcin Matkowski coalesced a consistent
baseline game with ubiquitous energy in defeating sophomore David
Wright, 6-2, 7-5.
At fourth singles, sophomore Erfan Djahangiri downed Stephen
Moros, 6-3, 6-1. He played a great all around game en route to the
easy victory.
“I’m very happy with the way I played today,”
said Djahangiri. “I played very solid, and I served
well.”
At fifth singles, sophomore Lassi Ketola trounced senior Sergio
Aquirre, 6-0, 6-0.
“He played almost flawless,” head coach Billy Martin
said. “He had a great match. He stayed within himself and
just smothered (Aquirre).”
To round out the top six, sophomore Travis Rettenmaier beat
freshman Alex Navinkov, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.
In doubles, the Bruins won two of the three doubles matches to
claim the doubles point.
At first doubles, Rettenmaier and Matkowski defeated Coirault
and freshman Joao Menano, 8-5.
“Marcin and Travis played very well at first
doubles,” Martin said.
The second doubles team of Ketola and Clemens were defeated by
Anderson and Wright. Despite never losing serve, the team made too
many unforced errors in the tiebreaker en route to a 9-8 (3)
loss.
The third doubles team of Grinda and senior Chris Sands fell
down a break at 7-6 before rallying back to claim a 9-7 victory
over Aquirre and Amit Taggar. Sands struggled throughout the set,
missing open shots and making unforced errors. Martin thought
concentration might have been a factor.
“He’s probably a little upset with the coach that
he’s not playing singles today, so its kind of hard for
him,” Martin said. “But he finished (the match)
good.”
Each team took something positive out of today’s match.
Georgia Tech head coach Kenny Thorne thought that his team played
hard despite coming up short.
“I thought we competed well today,” he said.
“But you’re always disappointed when you
lose.”
As for UCLA, Martin feels that his team has had a strong start
to the season. They are now 4-0 in dual match play, and have played
strong singles matches to date. “I feel we have a good team.
I think we can compete with anybody,” he said.
The Bruins will need to be confident because they are heading
into a difficult portion of their schedule. They play a dual match
at the University of Portland on Tuesday, and then head to Seattle
for the USTA/ITA Indoor Championships, where they will play San
Diego State in the first round.
“We’ll find out how good we are and where we stand
with (the top) teams real soon,” Martin said.