Men’s tennis prepares for San Diego with thoughts of prior losses

This weekend will mark the first match in a stretch of tough battles for UCLA men’s tennis, as the No. 9 Bruins host the No. 16 San Diego Toreros at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on Friday.

“It’s a team that we’ve seen over the last two, three years do very well,” said coach Billy Martin. “They’ve lost a few players, we’ve lost a few players, but we certainly know the base of their team and I think it’s a very strong team. I expect it to be a really hard-fought battle.”

The Toreros possess significant firepower in both their singles and doubles play.

In addition to the No. 7 doubles team of junior Filip Vittek and Jordan Angus, the Toreros boast the No. 34 and No. 35 singles players – Angus and Uros Petronijevic.

Several Bruins lost to Toreros earlier this year, including sophomore Martin Redlicki, who was defeated by Angus 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of All-American qualifiers in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“If I play Jordan (Angus) I’m definitely going to have that extra motivation because he did beat me in All-Americans,” Redlicki said. “He probably played a little better than he normally does and was able to beat me that day so (I’m) definitely going to have a little extra motivation to get the revenge win on him.”

Earlier in the fall, senior Karue Sell also lost 6-3, 6-3 to San Diego’s Romain Kalaydjian at the USTA/ITA Southwest Regional Championships.

Redlicki and junior Mackenzie McDonald are expected to play at the No. 1 doubles spot. The duo dominated last weekend against the tough Georgia Bulldogs, getting a key 6-1 victory over the No. 1 pair of Ben Wagland and Austin Smith.

“Mackie and I have always played well together from the very first tournament that we played,” Redlicki said. “His game complements mine and mine complements his, and we can compete at a really high level. Especially knowing the team that we’re playing is top 10, I was confident that we could beat not only them, but we could beat most of the teams in the country.”

Despite last week being his first dual-match back since suffering a wrist fracture in mid-December, McDonald will likely remain in the No. 1 spot for singles play after his performance last weekend earned him Pac-12 Player of the Week. McDonald said that his backhand is still slightly bothersome because of his wrist.

“I think singles was tougher than doubles actually because in doubles the only time I needed to hit a two handed backhand is on the return, so that minimizes (the pain),” McDonald said. “When I’m playing singles, at least 30 percent of my balls are backhand.”

The rest of the lineup should remain relatively similar to last weekend.

“When you’re winning, you’re not going to get thrown out of the lineup or moved down, quite honestly,” said Martin. “That’s one steadfast rule that I’ve always stuck to. I’m trying to be consistent with if you’re winning, feel secure.”