UCLA men’s tennis topples Stanford despite injured, ill players
Freshman Evan Zhu ended a two-match losing streak in singles play after pulling out a three-set victory over Stanfod sophomore Michael Genender on Saturday. (Hannah Ye/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By Jonathan Chang
Feb. 26, 2017 5:16 p.m.
Not even the flu can stop the UCLA men’s tennis team.
The No. 15 Bruins (8-3) beat the Stanford Cardinal (6-3) by a narrow score of 4-2 on Saturday in their first game back at home in almost a month.
In addition to senior Joseph Di Giulio missing his fourth consecutive match with an arm injury, many Bruins were questionable to play.
“Austin Rapp, really the whole week, I don’t think he was able to play today quite honestly with a fever and flu bug,” said coach Billy Martin. “Evan Zhu had the same thing, and Martin Redlicki also with the same thing. I was thinking who I would have to put in there. We had a little luck in that they felt a little better today and were able to compete.”
Juniors Rapp and Redlicki both overcame their illnesses to put UCLA’s first two points on the board. On court two, Redlicki won the first set 6-2 and his second set 7-5 against sophomore Sameer Kumar. On court five, Rapp rebounded from a first set loss to defeat David Wilczynski in three sets.
Zhu ended his two game losing streak due to a strong first set against his opponent, sophomore Michael Genender, but struggled in his second set with unforced errors. The freshman would eventually come back and win the match 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, citing his serve as a big factor for the resurgence.
“I felt that I brought my first serve percentage up and I was able to get some easier balls off of his return from my serve,” said Zhu. “So I think definitely that’s what started it. … Just keep on moving him and playing aggressive,”
Junior Logan Staggs clinched the victory by beating Stanford’s Jack Barber 6-4, 6-7, 6-4. He said the home atmosphere was a huge advantage in the win.
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“(The crowd) helped a lot. It also makes you a little nervous but it really helps,” said Staggs. “I feel that there were one or two points where Jack missed due to the pressure. They were balls he didn’t miss the whole match.”
The Bruins started in a deficit after losing two of three doubles courts with only Zhu and Redlicki winning their respective match on court one – the fourth straight game where they’ve lost the doubles point.
[Related: Men’s tennis to focus on doubles after losses at ITA National Indoors]
Despite this, Martin also said that the team is looking more confident now that they’ve won after losing to Virginia and California in their last two games.
“You don’t want to go on a three-match losing streak,” Martin said. “Virginia wasn’t a bad loss and Cal wasn’t a bad loss either. I think it’s a real good confidence booster for us being back home.”
The Bruins hope to take the momentum from their win against the Cardinal to the Pacific Coast Doubles Championship next weekend.
