M. tennis: Center Court

If points were awarded for the skill level of tennis spectators,
UCLA just might be undefeated.

That’s because as far as spectators go, there’s no
one better than Luben Pampoulov ““ at playing tennis, that
is.

Pampoulov, a junior on the third-ranked UCLA men’s tennis
team, had a year to perfect his spectating abilities before being
able to demonstrate his playing abilities in actual matches. After
arriving in Westwood last April, he had to sit out an entire season
before he was eligible to compete.

“I suffered,” Pampoulov said. “It was so hard
to watch and not to play.”

But he’s not suffering any more. This April, Pampoulov
took to the courts, and he hasn’t missed a beat. UCLA is 6-0
with him in the lineup, and the Bruins hope the winning will
continue throughout the NCAA Tournament, which begins Saturday.

“Luben’s given us a lot more depth,” coach
Billy Martin said. “It’s certainly given us a little
more inner confidence.”

Pampoulov, a native of Bulgaria who moved to Austria when he was
10 years old, entered the UCLA lineup at the No. 2 position. After
posting a 5-1 record in his dual matches with the team, he has
ascended the national rankings to No. 67. And he probably deserves
to be a lot higher.

“He can go up against anybody in the country and have a
chance,” Martin said.

But there was that entire year where he didn’t have a
chance because NCAA rules required Pampoulov to surrender two years
of college eligibility for not immediately enrolling in college
following his high school graduation.

Not being able to compete is a difficult thing for an athlete.
Especially when they know they are able to make a difference.

That’s exactly what Pampoulov had to do. After playing
competitive tennis every year since he was a young boy in Austria,
it suddenly stopped. The matches stopped. The competition stopped.
He was essentially nothing more than a practice player.

“It’s hard,” Pampoulov said. “I
practiced every day with the team, and I played really, really well
in practice.

“But then I think, “˜It’s only practice.’
You know that a match is always different. It’s physically
different, and mentally you get more nervous.”

Though he knew the feeling of competition well, he was only able
to observe it from the sidelines. Pampoulov was a spectator when
UCLA lost to USC, Duke and Baylor earlier in the season. He could
cheer, but he couldn’t do much with the tennis racket, which
is the reason he came to Westwood in the first place.

“He’s just solid,” said Philipp Gruendler,
Pampoulov’s teammate at No. 2 doubles. “He has very,
very few ups and downs.

“Second of all, he hits incredible shots. When it gets
tight in doubles and we need a point, that’s when he’s
at his best.”

Though Pampoulov remains modest and maintains that his team
could have won the matches it lost without him, it’s
impossible to ignore what he has brought to the Bruins.

Before April, UCLA was lacking a solid No. 2 player, doubles was
suspect, and No. 6 singles was a weak position. At one point in
March, UCLA had lost three straight matches and four of its
previous five. It appeared that the Bruins were simply treading
water until Pampoulov could make his presence felt.

“We were kind of waiting on him because we lost some
matches,” Gruendler said. “But then he was playing, and
we were successful. Now he’s just a part of the team, and we
don’t think back to before April.”

That’s a good thing because the holes of April have been
plugged. Pampoulov’s insertion at No. 2 singles has allowed
everyone else to move down a spot in the lineup, and he and
Gruendler have become an extremely formidable doubles pair. In
fact, they haven’t lost a match together, most recently
winning the Pac-10 doubles championship at the Ojai
Invitational.

It’s not a stretch to say that Pampoulov could be the
difference-maker, the player who ultimately gives UCLA the
opportunity to win its first championship since 1984. But Martin
won’t go quite that far.

“Now we’ll really be able to see what difference it
will mean to us,” Martin said. “I think it will make a
big difference, (but) whether it puts us over the hump, I
don’t know.”

And it remains to be seen how Pampoulov will perform in the
pressure-cooker environment of the NCAA tournament, something
completely new to him.

“I don’t know how excited I should be,”
Pampoulov said. “I’ve never experienced it. But I know
it’s the most important thing during the year, so I feel
pretty confident with my tennis and the team.”

It’s no wonder Pampoulov doesn’t understand the
magnitude of an NCAA championship. It was only a couple years ago
that he even began to consider the American university system.

Born to Ekaterina and Bojidar Pampoulov in Bulgaria, young
Pampoulov had very little conception of college tennis growing
up.

But that’s not to downplay his exposure to the game.

His father, Bojidar, was the former No. 1-ranked tennis player
in Bulgaria. Bojidar and his brother, Matey, comprised the
top-ranked Bulgarian doubles team, a team that competed in the
Davis Cup and registered victories over many top-ranked doubles
teams worldwide.

Pampoulov took up tennis at an early age and began playing
tournaments when he was 10. After graduating from high school at
age 19, he played in tournaments throughout Europe for about two
years. Then he began to consider the United States, the great
bastion for international players to pursue tennis and a college
education.

“I had heard many good things about UCLA, both in tennis
and academically,” Pampoulov said.

And then the pieces came together. Pampoulov began talking to
former Bruin Marcin Matkowski in Europe in the summer of 2002.
Matkowski, who left UCLA after last season to pursue a professional
tennis career, urged Pampoulov to contact Martin.

He did so in the fall of 2002; Martin was impressed, and
Pampoulov was invited to join the team.

He enrolled in school in the spring of 2003, and then the
waiting began. That waiting is something Martin can sympathize
with.

“It’s very tough,” the Bruin coach said.
“But in some ways it’s good. He’s been able to
watch things and really get a feel for what it’s all
about.”

He’s felt the winning; he’s felt the losing, but
what he hasn’t yet felt is the heartbreak. That feeling
reigned last May in Athens, Ga., when UCLA lost a 4-3 heartbreaker
to Vanderbilt in the NCAA semifinals.

At that match, Pampoulov was conspicuously absent. In fact, he
was back in Westwood, following the team online because he would
have had to fund his own trip.

He saw that Matkowski had two match points, either of which
would have sent UCLA to the championship. He saw that Matkowski
lost them both, and he talked to his heartbroken teammates on the
phone afterward.

“Of course I was sad,” Pampoulov said.

But not nearly as sad as he’ll be this year if the Bruins
meet a similar fate. That’s because this year Pampoulov will
be on the court. He will be battling alongside his teammates, a
spectator no more.

“It makes me happy when I can stand on the court and play
instead of watching from outside,” he said.

And perhaps it will be this outsider turned insider, spectator
turned competitor, who makes the critical difference.