UCLA begins season with strong start

  MINDY ROSS/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Freshman
Tobias Clemens prepares to smash a forehand during
a match last week. The Bruins will face BYU today at 1:30 p.m. at
LATC. MEN’S TENNIS vs. Today 1:30 pm Los Angeles
Tennis Center

By Greg Schain
Daily Bruin Contributor

The UCLA men’s tennis team finished its preseason on a
solid note over the weekend with a strong showing in the Sherwood
Collegiate Cup. The tournament, which took place at the prestigious
Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, involved Pepperdine along
with Pac-10 rivals Stanford, Cal and USC.

The star of the weekend for UCLA was Jean-Julien Rojer, a
sophomore from the Netherlands. Rojer won the singles draw with a
victory over unranked Ryan Haviland of Stanford, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4.

“(Rojer) played very, very well,” head coach Billy
Martin said. According to the coach, Rojer went into the tournament
with a goal of increasing the number of serve-and-volleys in his
game. This strategy paid big dividends for Rojer, who secured
UCLA’s No. 1 singles spot to open the season.

“He deserves to be number one with that showing,”
Martin said.

Rojer was elated with his big tournament win over the
weekend.

“It feels good,” he said. “It is great for my
confidence.”

Sophomore Erfan Djahangiri and freshman Tobias Clemens also had
great showings in the singles draw. Djahangiri, who had struggled
in the fall, played a strong tournament, reaching the semifinals.
He knocked off Cal’s No. 2 player, Balazs Veress, 6-1, 4-6,
6-2, before succumbing to Haviland, 6-1, 7-5 in the semifinals.

“(Djahangiri) looked like his old self and better,”
Martin said.

Clemens also put together a solid performance handily defeating
the No. 1 seed in the singles draw, John Paul Fruttero of Cal, in
the first round. Clemens went on to reach the quarterfinal round
before losing to Haviland, 7-5, 7-5.

Despite the success of UCLA players in the singles draw, the
doubles teams were a letdown for Martin.

The favored team of Rojer and senior Jean-Noel Grinda fell 8-6
in the quarterfinals to David Martin and Scott Lipsky, an unranked
team from Stanford. The other doubles team, consisting of Clemens
and Lassi Ketola, was defeated 8-4 in the first round by Ali Ansari
and Scotty Scott of Stanford.

“I was very disappointed in doubles,” Martin said.
“(They) were disturbingly bad.”

The season opener for the team is today at 1:30 p.m. against BYU
at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. Rojer, Grinda, Clemens and
Djahangiri will round out the top four singles spots and Rojer and
Grinda will be the top doubles team to start the season.

Rojer was excited at winning the top singles spot on the team
for the season opener.

“I knew (the choice for first singles) was gonna be
close,” he said. “You are always being
pushed.”

As for Martin, he can’t wait for the season to finally get
underway today.

“I am very excited about it,” he said.