UCLA takes both doubles and singles titles in NCAA championship
Sophomore Martin Redlicki (left) and junior Mackie McDonald (right) captured UCLA men’s tennis’ 11th doubles championship Monday, defeating Texas A&M’s Arthur Rinderknech and Jackson Withrow in straight sets. (Kathy Chen/Daily Bruin)
By Hanson Wang
May 30, 2016 4:48 p.m.
Two titles are a fitting end to a dominant display by UCLA men’s tennis.
Four hours after Mackie McDonald won the NCAA Division I singles championship, the junior teamed up with sophomore Martin Redlicki to defeat Texas A&M’s Arthur Rinderknech and Jackson Withrow 6-4, 6-1 to win the NCAA Division I doubles championship. McDonald became the fifth player since the NCAA Tournament moved to its current format in 1977 to win both the singles and doubles championship in the same year.
Unlike the singles final, the doubles title match was a one-sided story of breaks.
The No. 2-seeded Bruin duo got an early break at love in the first set to go up 2-1 and they didn’t look back, holding serve the rest of the set. Down 0-1 in the second, McDonald and Redlicki rattled off six straight games – including three breaks – to win the match.
Before that, however, there was a slight injury scare.
McDonald requested an injury timeout while he was serving up 2-1, 30-15. A trainer massaged his right shoulder for several minutes, and McDonald returned to the court soon after – seemingly back to normal – to serve out the game.
The Bruin pair ran the table after losing in the first round last year, defeating four top-20 foes on their way to the final. All but one match was in straight sets.
The one match that wasn’t in straights was a nail-biter, however.
McDonald and Redlicki barely survived in the semifinal, coming back from a 5-7 deficit in the third set super tiebreaker to knock off Notre Dame’s Alex Lawson and Quentin Monaghan 7-5, 6-7(5), 1-0(8).
Doubles play is usually unpredictable and prone to upsets, and this year’s tournament reflected that. The only seeded team to reach the semifinal was McDonald and Redlicki.
Eastern Tennessee State’s No. 63 David Biosca and Rogerio Ribeiro completed the biggest upset of the tournament over Florida’s No. 1 Diego Hidalgo and Gordon Watson in the second round. Biosca and Ribeiro eventually lost in the semifinal to Rinderknech and Withrow in three sets.
Rinderknech and Withrow – ranked No. 8 by the ITA but unseeded by the NCAA – defeated Virginia’s No. 3 Ryan Shane and Luca Corinteli in the first round. McDonald and Redlicki bested the Aggie duo at the National Indoor Championships in February and shut them down once again in their rematch.
Women’s doubles
On the other side, Catherine Harrison and Kyle McPhillips fell in the semifinals of the women’s doubles championship. The No. 7-ranked seniors upset Kentucky’s No. 2 Mami Adachi and Aldila Sutjiadi in the quarterfinal but couldn’t capitalize on another opportunity the next day, losing to Florida’s No. 3 Brooke Austin and Kourtney Keegan, the eventual champions.
Harrison and McPhillips nearly succumbed to an upset of their own in the first round, but they dominated the third set super tiebreaker 10-4 over Rice’s Katherine Ip and Emily Smith.
The Bruins won their next two matches in straight sets, dropping only two games in a rout over Adachi and Sutjiadi.
In the semifinal, Harrison and McPhillips capitalized on an early break to win the first set 6-4. They couldn’t convert any break points in the next set, however, as Austin and Keegan got a late break to tie the match at a set apiece. The super tiebreaker went the Gators’ way as well, as UCLA fell 10-5.
Harrison and McPhillips ended their careers with an 85-20 doubles record as well as consecutive doubles All-American awards in 2014 and 2015.
