Bruin tennis team rides over the Pepperdine Waves in 4-3 win at home
Freshman Marcos Giron won the final singles contest to help the UCLA men’s tennis team to a 4-3 victory over Pepperdine on Tuesday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. Giron defeated Pepperdine senior Alex Llompart 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 after coming back from a 3-1 deficit in the third set.
Men’s Tennis
UCLA 4
Pepperdine 3
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 16, 2012 1:08 a.m.
Experience does not always trump talent. That was the case on Tuesday as the No. 8 UCLA men’s tennis team took on No. 12 Pepperdine at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
Freshman Marcos Giron won the biggest match of his college career by winning the deciding singles point against Pepperdine senior Alex Llompart to secure a 4-3 victory in dramatic fashion.
The players split the opening two sets and Giron was down in the third set 3-1. He battled back to tie at 3-3 and went on to take a 5-4 lead. Llompart fought off three match points before Giron was able to connect on a backhand drop volley to end the match with a final line of 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
“Wow, what a scrappy battle for Marcos against a senior from Pepperdine,” coach Billy Martin said. “When it’s like this in the last match, I don’t care who you’re playing, and it’s tight and both teams want to win, it’s a real character builder and I think that will give him a lot of confidence.”
Redshirt senior Nick Meister, who was battling a case of the stomach flu, was unable to defeat Sebastian Fanselow, who took the match 6-4, 6-3.
“I just (have) to pick up my serve and really see the ball coming to the net more,” Meister said.
Martin thought that Meister gave an inspired performance against the Waves even though he was under the weather.
The other Pepperdine singles point came from Finn Tearney, who defeated sophomore Clay Thompson 6-2, 6-1.
UCLA got a point with a win from junior Maxime Tabatruong as he beat Mousheg Hovhannisyan 7-5, 6-2. In the other singles matchups, sophomore Adrien Puget defeated Jenson Turner 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, and freshman Dennis Mkrtchian defeated David Sofaer 6-2, 6-1.
The Bruins lost the doubles point for the third time in the last four games, but this point also came down to the wire.
Junior Warren Hardie and Thompson were able to win their doubles match 8-4 over Hugh Clarke and Sofaer.
Pepperdine’s tandem of Fanselow and Turner quickly struck back by defeating Giron and redshirt junior Alex Brigham 8-5.
“In doubles today, I could have increased my first serve percentage and hit some more serves,” Brigham said.
In the deciding doubles match, Meister and Puget had a 7-6 lead over Llompart and Tearney, but were not able to convert two match point chances. They would end up losing 7-5 in the tiebreaker to drop the doubles point 9-8.
“I’m really proud of the guys,” Martin said. “That could have been real easy to hang our head and just come out flat and be pissed off we didn’t win the doubles point. But they gutted it out.
“Our two freshmen again, besides Marcos, Dennis really got us on the scoreboard real quick. That really is a help to see somebody post a score and let us know that we are back in it.”
The Bruins will travel to Charlottesville, Va. to compete in the USTA/ITA National Team Indoors this weekend. The last time they won the National Team Indoor title was in 2001.
