Bruins head to Indoor Championships to vie for No. 1 spot
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 14, 2001 9:00 p.m.
MEN’S TENNIS National Indoor Championships
Today – Sunday, All day Seattle, Wash.
By Greg Schain
Daily Bruin Contributor
The No. 3 UCLA men’s tennis team traveled to the Emerald
City to play in today’s USTA/ITA National Indoor
Championships.
The tournament, which runs through Sunday in Seattle, features
16 of the top college programs in the country, including No. 1
Stanford, No. 2 Tennessee, No. 4 Georgia and No. 5 Duke.
The Bruins will face No. 43 San Diego State in the first round.
Since 1967, UCLA has defeated the Aztecs in 23 straight matches.
But despite the Bruins’ historical dominance of San Diego
State, UCLA head coach Billy Martin knows not to take a team for
granted.
“They are a good team. We expect a tough match,” he
said. “But we should be able to hold our own.”
If the Bruins make it to the second round, they will face the
winner of the No. 6 Texas A & M vs. No. 11 Virginia
Commonwealth match. Martin thinks the Bruins will meet Texas A
& M in the second round.
“I think Texas A & M will win (their first round
match),” he said. “Texas (A & M) is as good a team
as anyone in country. They are very solid.”
Sophomore Jean-Julien Rojer is back for the tournament after
playing in the Davis Cup in Costa Rica. He will return to the top
singles spot for the Bruins, despite the fact senior Jean-Noel
Grinda was 2-0 at the spot in Rojer’s absence. Grinda will
play No. 2 singles, with freshman Tobias Clemens playing at No.
3.
This will only be the second time this season that the Bruins
play indoors. Their first time was Tuesday against a weak Portland
team. Despite not playing any tough matches indoors this year,
Martin feels his team won’t be at a disadvantage.
“We’ll be ready,” he said. “We had a
good hit in practice today. The courts are slow so that will help
us out.”
Martin would love nothing more than to face Tennessee in the
semifinals, because UCLA’s quarterfinal loss to the
Volunteers in last May’s NCAA Championships is still fresh in
his mind. UCLA and Tennessee are both in the top half of the
draw.
“We want to play Tennessee to avenge our loss last
year,” he said.
Tennessee would also like to play UCLA to prove that their win
last year was no fluke. UCLA was without senior co-captain Brandon
Kramer for the match due to injury, so Tennessee head coach Michael
Fancutt feels that his team had an unfair advantage.
“Our victory was soured by the fact that we both
weren’t at full strength,” he said. “Hopefully
we’ll both be healthy next time we play.”
Whoever comes out of the top half of the draw would most likely
face Stanford in the finals.
“We would love to be able to play Stanford in the finals.
It is always a fun, fun battle with them,” Martin said.
In the finals match, the nation’s No. 1 ranking will be at
stake. The Intercollegiate Tennis Association, which ranks the
teams monthly, has its computers set up so that the winner of this
tournament will be No. 1 when the new rankings come out in
March.
Even if UCLA gets eliminated early in the tournament, Martin
feels that the experience will still be worthwhile because it will
give the Bruins a preview of potential NCAA Championship
opponents.
“It’s a good chance to see all the other teams. We
might not see teams like Tennessee and Georgia until May
otherwise,” Martin said.
