Young UCLA men’s tennis team gets set for season, competitive conference

Much like its previous two seasons, the UCLA men’s tennis team has once again garnered a lot of hype going into its dual match opener.

Last week, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division I Men’s National Team Rankings came out featuring UCLA at No. 4, and although coach Billy Martin was happy to see the Bruins ranked so high, he said that the success of the last few years might have helped in this year’s ranking.

“Honestly I don’t know if we deserve that,” Martin said. “We have had some good years the past two or three. We have lost some really key players though. I think that’s a little generous quite honestly. I think we have the potential to be a top four or five team in the country, but I think we are going to have to really earn it this year.”

UCLA lost Adrien Puget and Clay Thompson, who graduated last year, and Marcos Giron, who left to go play on the pro circuit. Giron and Thompson played the first and second spots in the lineup last year, while Puget played at the fifth spot in the playoffs.

UCLA did not only lose its top two singles players in the lineup, but the team also lost the top two in the nation. Giron and Thompson finished last year’s season ranked No.1 and 2, respectively, in the NCAA individual rankings.

This year, UCLA’s highest-ranked individual is Mackenzie McDonald at No. 7.

What UCLA has done to adjust to this loss in lineup talent is bring in recruit Martin Redlicki, five-star recruit Austin Rapp and four-star recruit Nikolas Ramadan. But right now, without much play at the college level, it is too early to tell if they will make the impact that Martin is hoping for.

Assistant coach Grant Chen, however, said he has faith that these new recruits and returning players will be able to earn their place among the best in the nation.

“The younger guys will step up, the returners will step up,” Chen said. “You know the team goes on and every year, every season this happens. You lose seniors, guys turn pro early so it something we have to deal with.”

Another issue for the Bruins could be their youth. They are expected to have only one senior and one junior in the lineup, and the rest will consist of sophomores and freshmen, so they could face trouble against some more experienced teams. Chen said he believes that the Bruins will be up for the challenge, however.

“The team is young, but I think that is a good thing,” Chen said. “They all have a tremendous amount of experience playing at an international and national level. They have all played high-level tennis.”

Pac-12 Outlook

The Pac-12 is tough this year. No. 1 USC is the heavy favorite to win the conference and it looks like it might be UCLA competing with Stanford, Cal and possibly Washington for that second spot. All three had an excellent recruiting season, ranking high in the Tennis Recruiting Network’s class rankings.

“We are certainly shooting for a Pac-12 Championship, but I think there are at least three teams that we will have to battle with,” Martin said. “I think ‘SC would probably be the favorite team this year, but you know I think we are right there with Cal and Stanford.”

Both Martin and Chen said the stronger the Pac-12, the better it is for the Bruins. Playing better teams will strengthen the team and in turn will prepare UCLA more for the postseason.

Battling the Anteaters

The season starts Wednesday against UC Irvine (2-4, 0-0 Big West) and it will be UCLA’s first test of its lineup. The Bruins have gone 5-0 against the Anteaters the past six years. As expected, the Bruins are eager show that they have what it takes to be a top-ranked team.

“I am expecting some nerves because it is my first dual match,” Redlicki said. “I am expecting the other (team) to come out hungry because we are a good team with a target on our back and they are going to want to jump on any opportunity they can to get a good win.”

Martin has been prepping the Bruins mentally all last week for these first few matches against unranked teams.

“Coach has told us don’t take anybody lightly because they are going to be going after us,” Redlicki said. “They want to win just as bad as we do and they are a good team this year with some good recruits. It’s not going to be as easy as you think.”