Lee heads to third round of NCAAs

By Dave Denicke

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

ATHENS, Ga. “”mdash; The UCLA men’s tennis season has been
whittled down several times this season. And while senior Jong-Min
Lee was still standing at the end of the day, junior Jean-Noel
Grinda wasn’t quite so lucky.

Lee played very well, devouring New Mexico’s Matt Amgwerd,
6-4, 6-0. Lee kept the pressure on Amgwerd throughout the
match.

“The guy could not hurt Jong,” Bruin head coach
Billy Martin said. “He was winning one out of four points
down the stretch ““ that’s not good enough to win a
match.”

While Martin noted Lee’s on-court performance, others
keyed in on his preparation, which came from an unexpected
source.

“The first match, Jong didn’t have anyone to hit
with,” team manager Zach Miller said. “So I helped out,
he won, and we got a little superstitious about it. Hopefully
we’ll finish it up on Sunday.”

Lee continued to press Amgwerd throughout the match. “I
wasn’t aggressive enough today, and for some reason
couldn’t find that aggressiveness,” Amgwerd said.
“I hit too many errors and played too defensively.”

For the second day in a row, Lee’s entire game sparkled.
“Once I won the first set, I got my second win. Especially
with the early break,” he said.

Unfortunately for the Bruins, as well as Lee played, Grinda
struggled just as much. Hampered by a sore shoulder, he meandered
his way through a 6-3, 6-4 loss to Jeff Laski of Illinois.

“I started to get scared about the shoulder, and that took
my concentration away from the match,” Grinda said.

When serving at 3-2 in the first set, Grinda felt tightness in
his shoulder and had trainer Charles Feng apply treatment. Laski
broke Grinda’s next two service games, taking the first set
6-3.

“Usually when someone breaks down, it’s in the
end,” said Laski, ranked 68th nationally. “It’s a
process, and it started with that first break.”

Martin realized that Grinda did not have his best stuff
Thursday.

“Horrible. You have to find a way to win, even when you
don’t have your best,” he said. “I’m very
disappointed. There wasn’t anything in his game going well
for him.”

Laski kept Grinda on the baseline, focusing on his backhand.
“I know he likes to run around to his forehand, so I made him
hit a ton of backhands,” Laski said.

The loss all but prevents Grinda from collecting a third
consecutive All-American season. Grinda, ranked 47th in the nation,
would need to crack the top 16 in the final ITA rankings. Lee,
meanwhile, has already clinched All-American status by virtue of
reaching the round of 16.

Lee will try to improve on that in his third-round matchup
against Texas A&M’s Shuon Madden. Lee is by most
standards an underdog against Madden, the No. 3 seed. Madden
advanced past Texas’ Brandon Hawk in a grueling three-set
match. Both players suffered from leg cramps in the humid, overcast
conditions. Hawk especially had trouble, needing a medical timeout
toward the end of the third set for treatment on both legs.

The winner of this match will play later Friday against either
Carlos Drada of Kentucky or Andres Pedroso of Duke. Lee defeated
Drada 6-3, 6-2 on Feb. 22, and is 2-0 against Blue Devil opponents
this year.

But before Lee can narrow down his path through the tournament,
he will have to get past Madden.

“Obviously, it’s going to be a tough match. But I
think if I play my game, I’ll be OK,” he said.

Lee will begin that match at 9 a.m. EDT Friday.