Men’s tennis delivers strong performance at weekend tournaments

As the three-day weekend came to an end, so did a successful weekend of tournament play for the UCLA men’s tennis team.

The Bruins had representatives spread out among two tournaments, the Sherwood Collegiate Cup and the National Collegiate Tennis Classic.

[Related: UCLA men’s tennis hopes to ride preseason tournament momentum into season]

Freshman Evan Zhu made his collegiate debut competing in the Sherwood Collegiate Cup and advanced to the singles semifinals.

Zhu also competed with senior Joseph Di Giulio in doubles this weekend, where they lost in the first round to Stanford in straight sets.

Zhu claimed he was nervous going into the tournament but found that his nerves subsided as the match began.

“I think I played pretty good in my matches, in the last one I had a few hiccups in the second and third set but I fought hard and I had some chances to get it back, but it just went the other way,” Zhu said. “But I think it was pretty good overall.”

Zhu said he is feeling confident in his game, but is excited to keep progressing with each college match he plays.

“I feel pretty good, I’ve been working hard, working on the areas of my game that need improvement,” Zhu said. “I think it’s getting better everyday and I’m just trying to go out there and fight hard and give it my all.”

Senior Michael Guzman and sophomore Daniel Gealer competed in the NCTC tournament this weekend in La Quinta, California.

Guzman ended up in the quarterfinal rounds of both the singles and doubles draws.

This was Guzman’s first time competing in the NCTC tournament and he is happy with how he competed. Guzman attributes his success to the strength of his forehand this past weekend.

“We hadn’t played competition in about six weeks I think, and over break, I live up north so it was raining a lot (and) I didn’t get to play that much,” Guzman said. “But I thought I played pretty well considering all that.”

Guzman did not feel nervous in his quarterfinal run, but instead was trying to enjoy the experience.

“I knew it was probably going to be the last time I played in an individual competition tournament,” Guzman said. ‘So that was the only thing I was really thinking about and just trying to enjoy it.”

UCLA had a total of eight players in the Sherwood Collegiate Cup, including senior Gage Brymer, junior Martin Redlicki, junior Logan Staggs, junior Austin Rapp, sophomore Maxime Cressy and freshman Ben Goldberg.

[Related: Duke’s loss of men’s tennis standout Redlicki is UCLA’s gain]

Brymer was seeded No. 1 in the singles tournament, Redlicki was seeded No. 3 and Cressy was seeded No. 7. However, Brymer and Cressy both lost in their first matches.

Cressy and Redlicki were also seeded No. 3 as a doubles team but fell to USC in the quarterfinals.

Di Giulio reached the singles semifinals and Staggs, who recovered from an injury in the fall, reached the singles quarterfinals and the double semifinals with Goldberg.