Squad cleans up more dual matches
By Daily Bruin Staff
April 15, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 CATHY JUN Freshman Marcin Matkowski
keeps his concentration in his win over Oregon with doubles partner
Travis Rettenmaier. UCLA 6, Washington 1
UCLA 7, Washington 0
By Greg Schain
Daily Bruin Contributor
The tennis gods were once again shining down on the top-ranked
UCLA men’s team this weekend, as the Bruins beat No. 13
Washington 6-1 on Friday and unranked Oregon 7-0 on Senior Day
Saturday to close out the home portion of their dual match
schedule.
The wins bring UCLA’s record to 19-1 overall and 6-1 in
the Pac-10.
Leading the way for the Bruins in both matches was senior
Jean-Noel Grinda at No. 1 singles, who saved his best tennis of the
year for the final home dual matches of his UCLA career. On Friday,
he trounced Washington sophomore Matt Hanlin 6-0, 6-2 and followed
it up on Saturday with an easy 6-1, 6-1 win over Oregon sophomore
Oded Teig.
“I was in the zone,” Grinda said. “I was
making whatever shots I wanted to make. I’m seeing the ball
like a watermelon.”
“(Grinda) was moving really well around the court,”
said UCLA Head Coach Billy Martin. “Better than he has in the
last few weeks.”
Bruin freshman Marcin Matkowski also had a big day on Friday. He
was forced to play at No. 2 singles because of a minor rotator cuff
injury plaguing regular No. 1 singles player, sophomore Jean-Julien
Rojer.
But that made no difference to Matkowski, as he stepped up and
used his big serve to defeat junior Andrej Bizjak 6-1, 6-4.
“(Bizjak) could not touch my serve,” Matkowski said
after the match.
Matkowski sat out the singles on Saturday nursing a minor ankle
injury. He is not expected to miss any more time and just sat out
as a precautionary measure.
The one loss for the Bruins on Friday came from freshman Tobias
Clemens, who’s still rusty after sitting out for more than a
month with a foot injury he received on March 6 at USC. He lost to
senior Jeremy Berman 6-2, 6-2.
“When you don’t play for 40 days, its normal not to
come back in top shape,” Clemens said.
But the fiery freshman managed to turn his game around on
Saturday. After struggling through the first set, he came back
strong, and ended up beating freshman Buck Mink 7-6 (5), 6-2 at No.
2 singles.
During the first point of the match, Mink hit the floor after
twisting his ankle. He was rolling on the court in pain, but after
a few minutes managed to get up and walk. After UCLA student
trainer Morgan Gelbart taped his ankle, Mink returned to action and
appeared fine.
Bruin sophomores Erfan Djahangiri and Lassi Ketola also played
solid tennis. Djahangiri beat senior Andy Posavac 7-5, 3-0 (ret.)
on Friday and defeated senior David Becker 6-3, 6-2 on Saturday. It
was unclear why Posavac retired, because he was not suffering from
any apparent injury.
Ketola beat sophomore Ari Strasberg 6-4, 6-1 on Friday and
followed that up with a 7-6 (3), 6-0 win over freshman Greg
Dubourdieu on Saturday.
UCLA sophomore Travis Rettenmaier’s viable all-around game
was on display this weekend, as he posted victories for UCLA both
Friday and Saturday. On Friday, he beat senior Marius Lunde 6-2,
6-2 at No. 6 singles. Lunde had vowed for revenge against UCLA
before the match because a loss to UCLA’s Jason Cook in 1999,
in which Lunde blew seven match points, was still on his mind.
On Saturday, Rettenmaier defeated sophomore Jason Menke 6-3,
6-3.
“My game is really progressing,” Rettenmaier said.
“I’ve been working really hard in the mornings with
Jason (Sher), our assistant coach, and my game is peaking at the
right time.”
On Saturday senior co-captain Chris Sands got a chance to play
because of Senior Day, and he made the most of his opportunity,
defeating freshman Chris King, 6-4, 6-0.
Most likely Sands’ last match for UCLA, the event was
special to him.
“I got a little sentimental at the end,” Sands said.
“But it was nice to end the match with an ace.”
The Bruins also won the doubles points in both matches. On
Friday Djahangiri and Ketola beat Dubourdieu and King handily, 8-4.
But Grinda and Clemens struggled, losing to Strasberg and sophomore
Dillon Ruby 8-6.
“Tobias played really shady on a lot of points,”
Grinda said. “He would be the first one to agree.”
The deciding doubles match was Matkowski and Rettenmaier against
Becker and Mink. Becker and Mink were up a break 7-6 and serving
for the match, but Matkowski and Rettenmaier broke to even the
match at 7-7, and went on to win 9-8 (5) in a close tiebreaker.
During the match, Washington Head Coach Matt Anger lived up to
his name. He yelled at the official for calling a Rettenmaier hit
in, when Anger thought it was out. At one point during the
argument, Anger slammed his hat and sunglasses to the floor after
the official refused to change his call.
When asked why he threw his hat and sunglasses, Anger answered,
“Because we had a disagreement, and I was trying to get my
point through.”
UCLA easily swept all of the doubles matches on Saturday to
claim the doubles point.
Next up for UCLA is Cal and Stanford on the road next weekend in
what will be the Bruins’ final dual matches of the season.
Stanford handed UCLA its only loss on April 6 at the LATC.
So why should the outcome next weekend be different?
“Well we should be injury-free, and we are the better
team,” Grinda said. “I’m confident that
we’ll compete real well.”
