A 26-4 tennis season in 2011-2012 that ended with a 4-1 semi-final loss to USC in the NCAA championships would have been deemed a success for almost any other team.

Just a day after the season ended in heartbreak for the UCLA men’s tennis team, three players had to take to the courts. Sophomores Marcos Giron and Dennis Novikov and junior Adrien Puget were at it again when they competed for the NCAA men’s tennis singles championships.

It was all on the final singles match. The score was 5-3, 40-30 in the third set, match point for junior Adrien Puget.

Sophomore Marcos Giron was exhausted, with parts of the Illinois crowd roaring for and against him as he battled to keep his, and his team’s, season alive.

As a No. 1 seed, UCLA men’s tennis knows that it has a target on its back.

The top seed in the NCAAs can come with its fair share of pressure. But the UCLA men’s tennis team did not read too much into the significance of this at last weekend’s NCAA Regionals, using them to re-establish the rhythm of playing matches, comfortably advancing to the NCAA Round of 16.

 
Heading into the NCAA Regionals this weekend, the No. 1 UCLA men’s tennis team has lost just one match in its last 25. The Bruins haven’t enjoyed such a strong record since the 2007-2008 season, when they went 21-1 before heading to the regional rounds.

UCLA men’s tennis not only defeated its rival at the end of its regular season, but also ascended to the No. 1 ranking heading into the Pac-12 tournament.

At the collegiate level, while it is the overall team effort that acquires a win or loss, tennis is still very much an individual sport.

The UCLA men’s tennis team entered singles play against No. 4 USC with a sense of urgency. Having just lost a tight doubles point, the No. 3 Bruins needed to win four of the next six singles matches to clinch a victory.