UCLA tops BYU in singles, falls short in doubles games

  PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Jean-Noel
Grinda returns the ball during the Bruins’ matchup against
BYU Friday. The Bruins won the singles competition 6-1.
UCLA 6 BYU 1

By Greg Schain
Daily Bruin Contributor

The No. 3-ranked UCLA men’s tennis team opened its season
Friday with a 6-1 victory over BYU at the Los Angeles Tennis
Center. The win featured solid individual performances, but exposed
the team’s fallibility in doubles.

Leading the way for the Bruins was sophomore Jean-Julien Rojer,
who defeated junior Gert Vilms in straight sets 6-1, 7-5 by
combining a strong serve with solid service returns and consistent
volleys.

“I think I returned pretty well and I’m serving well
these days,” Rojer said. “(My serve) puts a lot of
pressure on the other guy to hold serve.”

The only lapse for Rojer occurred in the second set when he came
out flat and quickly found himself down 3-0 before he was able to
pick up his game.

“I had a little bit of a letdown,” Rojer said.
“I tend to do that sometimes.”

The highlight of Rojer’s impressive victory occurred at
3-1 in the first set, when he fielded a hard, down-the-line shot by
hitting a behind-the-back volley en route to winning the point.

“I was just reacting. It was a little bit of luck,”
he said.

In second singles, senior Jean-Noel Grinda used his strong first
serve to overcome an inconsistent performance and defeat BYU
sophomore Carlos Lozano 7-5, 6-3. Grinda blames his inconsistency
on a lack of concentration and illness.

“I was a little sick. It takes time to get back from
that,” Grinda said. “But winning ugly is part of the
game.”

The other four singles players also won in straight sets.
Freshman Tobias Clemens defeated sophomore Anton Rudjuk at third
singles 7-5, 6-3 in a long match where momentum was constantly
teetering back and forth between the two players.

Sophomore Erfan Djahangiri put on an impressive performance,
beating Michael Gysens 6-1, 6-0.

“Erfan has been playing very, very well,” said head
coach Billy Martin. “He’s been very consistent for us.
(He) might break into the top three.”

Sophomores Lassi Ketola and Travis Rettenmaier won at No. 5 and
No. 6 singles, respectively.

Despite the team’s success in singles, the doubles play
was a major disappointment to Martin.

“I’m not real happy with (the doubles play),”
Martin said.

At first doubles, Rojer and Grinda lost 8-6 to Vilms and
Lozano.

Grinda said that the duo held back when they lost to the same
players they had previously defeated in singles competition.

“We were very tentative. We know we are a better team than
that,” he said. “We will keep on getting
better.”

Clemens and Ketola, the Bruins’ second doubles team, lost
a hard fought match, 9-7, to Harbach and Rudjuk. The team was on
the brink of defeat, down 7-5, when they battled back to tie the
score at seven. But they were broken at 7-7 and failed to break
back at 8-7.

The third doubles team, Rettenmaier and freshman Marcin
Matkowski, handily beat BYU freshman Eric Nyman and sophomore Jeff
Olson 8-2. But their victory was too little too late as the Bruins
lost the doubles point anyway.

Next up for UCLA is its Pac-10 opener at Arizona on Friday.

Martin, meanwhile, is looking forward to the team’s
prospects this season. “We’ll get nothing but
better,” he said.