Stanford stands in m.tennis’ path

Thursday, April 18, 1996

No. 2 Cardinal can spoil Bruins’ 21-match win streak Saturday at
LATCBy Mark Shapiro

Daily Bruin Staff

Over the course of a season, it would be standard fare for even
the best teams to take a few losses and struggle through the
occasional slump. For the top-ranked UCLA men’s tennis team, this
year has been far from ordinary.

This has been a regular season made in heaven for the Bruins,
who head into their final dual matches of the season before the
Pacific 10 and NCAA championships as the last undefeated team in
the nation.

This year’s squad, with its 21-0 record, has a chance to be the
first UCLA team to go undefeated in the regular season since the
1975 squad, which went on to win their 11th national championship.
There is one obstacle in this road to glory, however, for the
second-ranked Stanford Cardinal are coming to town with revenge on
their mind.

The Bruins, on the other hand, have a chance to return last
season’s favor when Stanford beat UCLA three times. After beating
them twice this year, including once at the Farm, UCLA gets to
tackle the Cardinal at the Los Angeles Tennis Center at 1:30
Saturday afternoon.

"It certainly can be done with two matches to go," Martin said.
"To beat Stanford is going to require our very best. It’s nice to
have the win up there under our belt but we can’t be content."

* * *

With a perfect season on the verge of becoming reality, the
Bruins are setting their sights on more significant
accomplishments. UCLA’s first tennis national championship since
1984 is the ultimate goal for this team.

"(A perfect season) is very trivial," Martin said. "It’s nice,
it looks and sounds good, but I would trade five losses for an NCAA
title."

The scary thing is, UCLA is just warming up. With a three-week
layoff between the Pac-10 and NCAA championships, the Bruins will
have their first stretch of practice time without the pressure of
dual matches in months.

"In many ways, I think our best tennis is still to come," Martin
said. "We have a great weekend and the Pac-10 championships and
then a couple of weeks of work. It’s been a tough month of constant
pressure so it will be nice to have a little break from dual
matches. It will give us a chance to take three or four days off
without having a match coming up."

Those sentiments were echoed by co-captain Srdjan Muskatirovic,
whose game has improved markedly over the course of the season as
he has risen to become the 19th-ranked singles player in the
nation.

"We’ve played a lot of matches these last couple of months and
we saw what’s working and what’s not working," Muskatirovic said.
"Over those three weeks, we can improve on the things that we need
to work on and we’ll be set."

* * *

With the latest Rolex rankings fresh off of the press, not much
has changed as far as the Bruins are concerned. They maintained
their hold on the top rank in the country with Stanford following
at No. 2. The rest of the top five is filled out by Mississippi,
Texas Christian and Fresno State.

Sophomore Justin Gimelstob remained at No. 3 on the singles
ladder, with USC’s Cecil Mamiit at No. 2 and TCU’s Paul Robinson at
No. 1. Gimelstob, who has defeated Mamiit twice this year, did not
supplant him in the latest rankings because his victory over the
weekend was not factored in this week’s release.

Muskatirovic was the biggest mover as he saw his ranking rise to
No. 19, with junior Eric Taino ranked 27th. Sophomore Matt Breen
remained at No. 88.

SCOTT O/Daily Bruin

Senior co-captain Srdjan Muskatirovic saw his ranking sky-rocket
to No. 19 in the latest Rolex rankings.