Dennis Mkrtchian battles his way to the final of Sherwood Cup

“Why not?”

That’s what popped into Dennis Mkrtchian’s head as he sprinted across the court to save the match.

The unseeded UCLA men’s tennis senior had already battled back from behind in both of the first two rounds of the Sherwood Collegiate Cup. Baylor’s Diego Galeano had served for the match against him in the first round before Mkrtchian clawed his way to a three-set victory. Then against fifth seed Nick Crystal of USC, he overcame a 4-2 deficit in the third set to reach the quarterfinals.

Now facing match point, down 6-5 in the third set, against Baylor’s Max Tchoutakian, Mkrtchian was in trouble again. This time, it looked like he wouldn’t find a way out.

As Mkrtchian scrambled for the ball, Tchoutakian approached the net, ready to slam home whatever weak return Mkrtchian might produce.

“I was in a bad position, out of place, running full speed. I figured if I hit an easy shot, he’s just going to put away the next ball anyway,” Mkrtchian said. “So I had to go all in.”

In full stride, Mkrtchian walloped a running forehand down the line, a shot that coach Billy Martin said would probably work two or three times out of 10.

“I just said, ‘Why not?’ and I launched it,” Mkrtchian said. “I prayed and crossed my fingers and I got lucky.”

Tchoutakian helplessly stabbed at the ball, knocking it to the side of the court and giving his opponent new life.

Mkrtchian had to fight off another match point on his way to yet another three-set victory, placing him in the semifinals against Baylor’s Julian Lenz, the nation’s fifth-ranked player.

Lenz had already dispatched two Bruins, sophomore Michael Guzman and freshman Martin Redlicki, in two sets each.

“He’s an all-court player, pretty comfortable from everywhere on the court,” Redlicki said of Lenz. “He likes to attack, to control the court with his forehand and move you around.”

The mobile Mkrtchian was up to the task, pushing the Baylor star to a tiebreaker in the first set before winning the second set 7-5. Having already piled up three third-set victories, Mkrtchian then took over, breaking Lenz’s serve twice on the way to a 6-3 victory in the final set.

“Knowing how physically drained Dennis was from the first two days, I really thought he’d have less of a chance,” Martin said. “But when it came down to the last set, it seemed like he had a little bit more energy than Julian even.”

An exhausted Mkrtchian would falter in the final the next day, winning just two games as he fell to USC’s Roberto Quiroz in two sets.

“I can’t think too much about the final because I was not at my competitive best,” Mkrtchian said. “I was tired, exhausted, couldn’t compete as well as I liked, couldn’t put in the energy I would have liked.”

Regardless of the result in the final, Martin said his oldest player helped illustrate the resolve he wanted all of his players to maintain when they face adversity.

“Dennis has always been as good a competitor as we have on our team,” Martin said. “We want all of our players to hang in there and try to win matches when they’re just about to lose. You have to give yourself a chance to do that instead of just throwing in the towel and saying ‘It’s not my day.’”

Martin said he came away from the tournament with a solidified lineup for the team’s opening dual match against UC Irvine. While no other Bruins made it past the singles quarterfinals and the top doubles team lost in the semifinals of a 16-team draw, Mkrtchian may have picked just the right time to impress his coach.

“He’s hitting his backhand better than he’s ever hit his backhand in his life, especially in his UCLA career,” Martin said. “He worked very hard on that in the fall. He somewhat admitted that that’s the area of his game he has to pick up, and he’s really done it.”