This post was updated Oct. 16 10:28 p.m.

A Bruin newcomer’s first collegiate title nearly didn’t happen.

Freshman Aadarsh Tripathi was slated to pair up with junior Timothy Li in the doubles draw of the UC Santa Barbara Classic, but an injury to Li forced redshirt sophomore Jeffrey Fradkin to slot in.

The revised tandem would turn out to be a winning formula.

UCLA men’s tennis split up for its first tournaments of the fall slate, sending one contingency to the UCSB Classic over the weekend while another journeyed to Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the ITA All-American Championships from Oct. 1-10. It was at the former where Tripathi and Fradkin won all three of their matches en route to the A Flight doubles title.

“His (Fradkin’s) different view of things really helped me calm down, and I would just say his leadership and overall demeanor helped us bring it to the next level,” Tripathi said. “He really put me out of positions where I was struggling, and I really give him all the credit.”

On their path to the podium, Tripathi and Fradkin first faced BYU’s Redd Owen and Wally Thayne, a bout that the blue and gold won by way of an 8-6 decision. And though they needed a tiebreaker, the pair of Bruins upended Austin Di Giulio and Emin Torlic of Loyola Marymount 8-7 (9-7) one round later to reach the title match.

UCLA’s only other doubles team active at the UCSB Classic – junior Stefan Leustian and freshman Azuma Visaya – had already fallen 8-6 in the quarterfinals to the pair that awaited Tripathi and Fradkin in the finals.

That duo would not send home a second set of Bruins.

Turning in their largest margin of victory in the tournament, Tripathi and Fradkin triumphed over Cal Poly’s Joe Leather and Bastiaan Weststrate with an 8-3 performance.

With Visaya also reaching the singles semifinals before losing to James Watt of Saint Mary’s – now the back-to-back champion of the tournament – both blue-chip freshmen strung together multiple wins, leading coach Billy Martin to compare the duo to freshmen of the past.

“Most of the time, I like playing that tournament just because I see guys go through the freshman jitters, and I’m talking about some really great players that have come through UCLA,” Martin said. “Those guys were as competitive and energetic as any freshman I’ve ever had, so I was really, really happy.”

In the midwest, UCLA’s two ranked singles players, No. 23 Alexander Hoogmartens and No. 56 Patrick Zahraj, kicked off their fall season alongside Fradkin and sophomore Giacomo Revelli. Only Revelli left with wins under his belt.

Needing to get through both the prequalifying and qualifying rounds to reach the main draw, Revelli knocked his first three opponents out of the running. The last of the three matches featured a 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 comeback victory over Oregon’s Vlad Breazu in which Revelli bageled the Duck after dropping the first set.

“The first set was very close. It could’ve gone either way, but I still felt, despite losing it, that I had the upper hand,” Revelli said. “Falling back on this mental preparation, … it’s very handy in terms of your ability to bounce back from these situations, … being able to push onward and express more quality in what was needed.”

The sophomore’s win streak came to a halt in the fourth round of prequalifying, where Trice Pickens of Northwestern served him a 6-2, 6-3 defeat.

Revelli started out 2022 dual-match play largely at the No. 4 singles spot and played as high as No. 2 near the end of the campaign. Martin said a big role awaits Revelli in 2023.

“He’s going to be an intricate part,” Martin said. “I’m expecting big things. He worked really hard over the summer and quite honestly is probably as hard of a worker on our team as anybody.”

Elsewhere in Tulsa, Fradkin went winless in his prequalifying and prequalifying consolation matches, taking the first set in both but proceeding to drop the last two.

Hoogmartens and Zahraj failed to notch wins individually but matched Revelli’s win total as a No. 57-ranked pair. They played six sets across their three prequalifying matches, turning in three consecutive straight-set victories and adding a 6-4, 6-4 ranked win in the middle of the run over No. 52 Nemanja Malesevic and Gregor Ramskogler of Mississippi State.

The hot streak didn’t translate to the main draw, where Hoogmartens and Zahraj were sent packing 7-5, 6-4 in the round of 32 by the No. 16-ranked Texas duo of Cleeve Harper and Eliot Spizzirri.

Next up for the Bruins is the ITA Regional Championships, which are set to begin Wednesday at the Ralphs Straus Tennis Center in Malibu.