Five men’s tennis doubles duos to compete in San Diego tournament
Freshman Max Wild saw his first dual match play of the season against Grand Canyon on Tuesday. Wild played No. 3 doubles with freshman Govind Nanda as his partner against Grand Canyon, but will join fellow freshman Roscoe Bellamy this weekend. (Niveda Tennety/Daily Bruin)
By Jason Maikis
March 1, 2019 12:23 a.m.
The Bruins will receive a brief respite from competitive dual-match play and team tournaments.
No. 23 UCLA men’s tennis (5-4) will send five doubles teams to compete in the 130th Annual Pacific Coast Men’s Doubles Championship in San Diego this weekend. UCLA is coming off a 4-2 win over Grand Canyon on Tuesday without a single returning starter from last season in the lineup.
One of the Bruins’ doubles teams, made up of freshman Govind Nanda and assistant coach Rikus De Villiers, earned the No. 1 seed in the bottom half of the 128-team bracket. Sophomore Bryce Pereira and freshman Patrick Zahraj earned the No. 8 seed in the top half, entering with a 4-4 record in dual-match play.
The tournament will provide opportunities for UCLA’s younger and less experienced players to garner competitive match experience. Freshman Max Wild played in his first dual match of the season against Grand Canyon and said the experience was good preparation for the weekend.
“It’s definitely a new feeling,” Wild said. “Playing in the doubles lineup Tuesday was super exciting, and a little nervous at first. I was happy I was able to end up playing well, and hopefully I can bring that into this weekend.”
Freshman Roscoe Bellamy, Wild’s doubles partner for the weekend, said he’s been preparing hard and playing different kinds of competition in practice to be ready heading into this weekend.
“I’ve been training hard, working on things that I can improve on,” Bellamy said. “Playing a lot of competitive matches and sets in practice, trying to get real match play into our preparation.”
While it will be the duo’s first time playing together, the two have known each other since school began.
“(Wild) being my roommate has been amazing and he’s become my best friend here,” Bellamy said. “Since we have good chemistry, I think we will be able to pump each other up well if something isn’t going right on the court or if anything goes wrong, we have each other’s back.”
Wild said he looked forward to being able to work on his skills this weekend.
“I’m going to really be working on my serve this week,” Wild said. “That will be a huge factor in my doubles play this weekend, so hopefully I can play a bigger, more accurate serve and see improvements.”
The Bruins will also have two other doubles teams competing, junior Ben Goldberg alongside redshirt sophomore Connor Rapp, as well as freshmen Eric Hahn and Mathew Tsolakyan.
