UCLA men’s tennis hopes to repeat success at SoCal championship
Senior Dennis Mkrtchian said the goal for UCLA men’s tennis at the SoCal Intercollegiate Championships is to have “a UCLA guy to hoist the trophy at a UCLA tournament.” (Katie Meyers/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By Jason Drantch
Oct. 29, 2014 2:59 a.m.
Last year’s Southern California Intercollegiate Championships pitted UCLA men’s tennis players against one another in the championship matches for both the singles and doubles draws.
At this week’s 58th iteration of the event, the team is hoping for the Bruins to be the champions of both draws once again.
“At the end of the day, we want a UCLA guy to hoist the trophy at a UCLA tournament, so that’s the plan,” said senior Dennis Mkrtchian. “Each and every guy is going to be prepared and go out and have fun, but also represent UCLA the way they need to.”
With this tournament held on campus at the Los Angeles Tennis Center, it would appear to give the Bruins a clear home-court advantage.
“We play on these courts every single day, so it’s great for us,” said sophomore Gage Brymer. “We’re comfortable on these courts and I think that will really help us.”
Coach Billy Martin expects 10 of his 12 players to participate in the tournament, with sophomores Mackenzie McDonald and Travis Martin as the only holdouts.
This allows Martin to continue to gauge his players and collect more data on how they are performing so that he can start to piece together a singles lineup for the regular season.
“These individual tournaments really help me with the big decision as far as the lineup. Come January, I’ve got to set a lineup … and that’s never fun or easy for me,” Martin said. “So, all of this is good feedback for me in my decision-making process of who plays one through six.”
Martin said he has been “pleasantly surprised” by the chemistry he has seen from this doubles teams thus far. As of right now, he does not have a reason to mix up any of the pairings. But, of course, that could change by January.
For now, he will continue with his combinations of McDonald and freshman Martin Redlicki, sophomore Joseph Di Giulio and junior Karue Sell as well as Brymer and Mkrtchian.
Similar to last year, there is a high possibility of two Bruins matching up against one another, whether it is in the finals or earlier in the draw. In that situation, Mkrtchian said that the teammates have to realize it’s a serious, competitive match, but also not take the result personally.
“Whatever happens on the court, stays on the court, and it’s forgotten as soon as they step off the court,” Mkrtchian said. “It needs to remain competitive, but at the same time, it needs to be more (respectful) than if they were playing a USC Trojan or something.”
While the players won’t be facing any Trojans this week, doing well in this tournament will still serve as a big confidence booster for the young team that lost many of its top players from last year’s squad as it continues to prepare for the regular season.
“It’s important to actually do well in these tournaments so the guys can see that they can compete with anyone,” Mkrtchian said. “If they feel like they can compete with anyone, we can do good things this year.”
