Men’s tennis to face Anteaters
Coach Billy Martin speaks about the season after a UCLA 4-3 loss during the NCAA Championships last spring. UCLA plays UC Irvine this afternoon.
By Brantley Watson
Feb. 23, 2010 5:13 a.m.
To the untrained eye, it may seem as if the UCLA men’s tennis team is doing everything right.
Although they have lost two matches early in the season, the Bruins are still No. 6 in the country. In addition, the Bruins have not had much court time due to the recent rain in Southern California.
But to the trained eye, which in this case is UCLA men’s tennis coach Billy Martin, the Bruins are not quite where they need to be.
Not just yet.
And according to Martin, the Bruins better catch their stride in a hurry, with tough matches against No. 27 California, No. 8 Stanford,and No. 5 USC right around the corner.
But before they reach that tough stretch of Pac-10 foes, the Bruins will have the chance to fine-tune some things when they take on UC Irvine today at 1:30 p.m. at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
“I don’t look at it as making big strides, I think it’s got to be incremental,” Martin said of his team shaking off its recent rust. “It’s a matter of little things. To me, it’s a lot of mental stuff too, like not letting up when you get ahead. I’ve seen guys relaxing. Against good teams … you can’t relax for one point. You’ve got to be really, really solid mentally.”
Usually, a February match against the Anteaters would not warrant too much concern, but considering the Bruins’ lack of match experience early in the season, Martin realizes just how imperative it is for his Bruins to have a good showing against UCI.
“I think it’s going to be a tough match for us,” Martin said. “They beat (San Diego State) … so they’ll be a little tougher team. I think we got to expect a tough match. I’m hoping this will be a really good warm up for our Stanford-Cal trip.”
The Anteaters are 7-2 on the season, their only losses coming from Washington and USC, the Trojans having also handed UCLA one of its two losses. In addition, both UCLA and UCI maintain recent hard-fought victories over San Diego State.
One area that Martin has stressed as of late is doubles play. In their last three matches, the Bruins have lost the doubles point, putting them in an early hole and creating another level of pressure to perform well in singles. And Martin pointed out some specific areas that are in need of drastic improvement, namely, issues of serving and returning.
“Doubles-wise, we’re doing a lousy job with first-serve percentage,” Martin said. “I don’t think we’re doing a good job of returning and mixing up our returns.”
Martin is confident in his team’s ability to correct its mistakes and play up to its potential, adding that he isn’t necessarily worried about losing today’s match. He is more concerned with using the match to get prepared for road matches at Stanford and Cal later this week.
“I’m hoping that we’re a good enough team where I don’t think we have to be quite so concerned with (UCI), although they look like a stronger team than they have been in years past,” Martin said.
