Singles wins balance doubles losses

  BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Sophomore
Tobias Clemens made up for a doubles loss when he
upset San Diego State’s Oliver Meiberger, ranked No. 11 in the
nation. UCLA 5 SDSU 2

By Gilbert Quiñonez
Daily Bruin Contributor

Doubles matches only account for one of the seven points in
men’s tennis, but that doesn’t make them any less
exciting, as was shown in UCLA’s 5-2 victory over San Diego
State on Tuesday.

UCLA’s Alberto Francis and Rodrigo Grilli were tied 5-5
with a break point opportunity. It looked like UCLA and SDSU were
going to split the other two doubles matches, meaning the break
point opportunity would probably determine the winner of the
doubles point. Grilli hit a forehand winner down the left sideline,
which eventually gave them the set, 8-6. However, the crowd did not
cheer.

On the next court, UCLA’s Tobias Clemens and Lassi Ketola
seemed to be in control of their set, leading 5-3. As Francis and
Grilli broke serve, Clemens’ was broken, putting SDSU’s
Felix Hardt and Valentino Pest back into the game.

Meanwhile, the No. 1 doubles team in the country, UCLA’s
Jean-Julien Rojer and Marcin Matkowski, had just lost their doubles
match 8-3 to the No. 2 doubles team in the country, Oliver
Meiberger and Ryan Redondo.

“They played OK,” Matkowski said. “They are
the No. 2 team in the nation. We didn’t play well today. Next
time, we’ll win for sure.”

Clemens and Ketola went on to have their serve broken three
straight times, as they lost the deciding doubles match 8-6.

Of course, just like they did on Saturday, the Bruins rebounded,
winning five of the six singles matches.

This included an upset, as No. 19 Clemens beat No. 11 Meiberger
7-6, 6-3.

“It was a big win for me against one of the best players
in college tennis,” Clemens said. “He doesn’t
make mistakes. He’s too good.”

Coming back from tendinitis, Matkowski beat Hasson 6-4, 7-6.

“He’s not playing his best tennis right now,”
UCLA head coach Billy Martin said. “He had to take some time
off, but he gave it a great effort.”

Grilli and Rojer dominated their singles matches, beating Hardt
6-2, 6-2 and Pest 6-1, 6-3 respectively.

“I’m really happy with how our top three singles
players (Clemens, Grilli, Rojer) played today,” Martin
said.

In the other singles matches, UCLA’s Erfan Djahangiri beat
Ryan Redondo 6-3, 6-4 and SDSU’s Gabe Coren beat Ketola 2-6,
6-2, 6-4.