M. tennis: Men’s tennis cruises with confidence

Things will most likely change at some point.

Just not yet.

For the sixth time this season, the No. 2 UCLA men’s
tennis team cruised to a 7-0 victory, this time over UC Irvine. It
was a match that wasn’t ever close, against a team that never
had a chance ““ two things to which the Bruins (6-0) are
becoming pretty accustomed.

“It always feels good to win 7-0, especially against these
teams,” said senior Chris Lam, who cruised to a straight set
victory on Court No. 2.

“Even though they are easier teams and we are capable of
winning 7-0, it’s not always easy doing that ““ you have
letdowns, especially when you play six matches.”

But the word “letdown” hasn’t yet entered the
Bruins’ collective vocabulary.

Everyone is playing with too much pride, and no one wants to be
the one to drop that first point.

“We don’t think,” senior Kris Kwinta said.
“We just play our tennis. We’re focused in the
beginning of the season.

“It’s not like last year,” he said. “We
don’t have to learn throughout the season. We already know
what it takes to win at the end.”

Having faced little adversity early on, the Bruins have simply
gone about their business.

On Wednesday, UCLA rolled to victories in all three doubles
matches and won in straight sets on five of the six singles courts.
Even without Luben Pampoulov, the team’s No. 1 player, the
Bruins had absolutely no trouble with the Anteaters (1-3).

“From a coaching standpoint, I’m still very, very
happy that everybody refuses to lose,” coach Billy Martin
said. “That’s really important.”

“Guys can look up at the scoreboard and see that
we’re winning and just kind of coast, but nobody has done
that yet,” he said.

In addition to being happy with his players’ will to win,
Martin is also quite satisfied with the improvement his team has
shown in doubles.

After losing their first two doubles matches of the season,
Kwinta and Alberto Francis showed Wednesday why they are regarded
as one of the best doubles teams in the country, registering an 8-1
victory over Ryusuke Kashiwabara and Brian Morton.

“I didn’t even recognize that team,” Martin
said. “They looked like different guys.”

Bruin freshmen Mathieu Dehaine and Jeremy Drean continued their
winning ways, with Dehaine scoring a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Peter
Surapol, brother of UCLA’s Chris Surapol, at No. 4, and Drean
cruising 6-4, 6-1 at No. 6.

Benjamin Kohlloeffel played a great match Wednesday, just one
day after he had struggled against UC Santa Barbara. He easily
dispatched Morton at No. 1, 6-4, 6-0.

Francis was the only Bruin to drop a set Wednesday, but he came
back in a third-set super-tiebreaker to keep the shutout streak
alive.

“Because of our depth, everyone is going very hard and
being very competitive,” Lam said. “No one can just
slack off and expect to keep their spot.”