Bruins scrape by with victory over No. 23 Kentucky

By Greg Schain
Daily Bruin Reporter

It wasn’t supposed to end this close.

The No. 3 UCLA men’s tennis team was supposed to dominate
No. 23 Kentucky the same way they killed No. 13 USC last week.

UCLA certainly didn’t dominate, but they played just well
enough to pull off a tough 4-3 victory on Tuesday at the Hilary J.
Boone Tennis Complex in Lexington, Kentucky.

“It was a real hard fought match,” said UCLA head
coach Billy Martin. “It was our first dog fight of the
year.”

Martin’s players struggled to adjust to the indoor
setting, which they haven’t played on all year.

“It’s tough to get used to this court speed,”
Martin said. “It is so much faster than what we’re used
to. It’s a totally different game.”

The Bruins took the first point of the match by taking two of
three matches at doubles.

In singles, sophomore Tobias Clemens was the first match
finished, and he won 6-1, 6-0 at No. 1 singles. Junior Erfan
Djahangiri followed with a loss by that same score at No. 5.

Junior Rodrigo Grilli, a newcomer to the team after transferring
from College of the Desert, won at No. 4 singles, and Junior Lassi
Ketola finished fourth, losing 6-4 in the third set. That loss
pulled Kentucky to within 3-2 of the Bruins.

Sophomore Marcin Matkowski followed with a tough third-set loss
at No. 2 singles, tying the match up at 3 and putting the victory
on the shoulders of junior Jean-Julien Rojer at No. 3 singles.
Rojer was locked in a 3rd set battle, and saved four match points
before rallying to a 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(2) victory.

“Anytime you come back like that, it shows a lot of
character,” Martin said of Rojer. “And he has a lot of
character.”

The Bruins are in Kentucky to play in the National Indoor
Championships, which start Thursday in Lexington. Oddly enough,
their first round opponent is Kentucky, who will surely be looking
for revenge after suffering a heartbreaking loss.

Martin plans on moving Rojer up to No. 2 singles and dropping
Matkowski to No. 3 in order to create more favorable matchups for
both players.