ONLINE EXTRA: Men’s tennis team hopes to elevate its play in Arizona

By Gilbert Quiñonez
Daily Bruin Contributor

Altitude, not Arizona or Arizona State, might be the biggest
problem for the UCLA men’s tennis team this weekend.

In baseball, high altitude helps the ball carry and leads to
more home runs. In tennis, a ball that would normally fall on the
line would fall a few inches out of bounds.

“Balls that are usually in fly out by that much,”
UCLA coach Billy Martin said, using his hands to show a space of
only a couple of inches.

The two opponents No. 5 UCLA visits this weekend are located
about 2,000 feet higher than the Bruins are accustomed to. However,
the teams themselves shouldn’t be too much of a challenge. In
the last 30 years, No. 40 Arizona State has only beaten UCLA once,
and No. 47 Arizona hasn’t beaten the Bruins at all.

Even though they are the heavy favorites, the Bruins say they
won’t be overconfident going into Friday’s match
against ASU and Saturday’s match at Arizona.

“We’ve had some close calls there in the
past,” Martin said. “It’s always tough away from
home.”

“I struggled against the Arizona teams last year,”
No. 6 starter Lassi Ketola said. “I’m looking for
revenge.”

Ketola is coming off of a loss in UCLA’s win over San
Diego State on Tuesday, accounting for the Bruins’ only
singles loss.

Junior Rodrigo Grilli, on the other hand, dominated on Tuesday,
winning his match 6-2, 6-2, and will be making his first trip to
Arizona as a Bruin.

“Everything went right for me (on Tuesday),” Grilli
said. “I’m very excited about going to
Arizona.”

In Pac-10 tennis, teams are only required to play each other
once. Because of this, the weekend games against Arizona and ASU
will not count in the Pac-10 standings.

The Arizona will come to Los Angeles in March, and those games
will count in the Pac-10 standings.

“It’s been a bug in my bonnet for years,”
Martin said. “It’s tough to play Pac-10 teams and have
them not count.”