Clutch doubles play pushes UCLA men’s tennis to back-to-back home sweeps

The Bruins rebounded with back-to-back conference wins over the weekend to snap their two-match skid.

UCLA men’s tennis (11-7, 3-3 Pac-12) knocked off a pair of opponents Friday and Saturday, defeating Washington (10-10, 1-5) and Oregon (12-11, 1-5), respectively, at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. The Bruins swept both opponents 4-0, losing just two doubles matches all weekend.

Coach Billy Martin attributed his team’s victories to early success in singles competition.

“We started well in singles both days, so just tremendous wins for us,” Martin said. “So very, very important to get us in the NCAA tournament, which was really a goal, for sure, after last year.”

In the team’s first home competition in just less than a month, dominance on the singles front highlighted Friday’s victory over Washington, where UCLA won all three necessary points via straight sets. After splitting the first two matches of doubles competition, UCLA secured the decisive win after redshirt sophomore Jeffrey Fradkin and freshman Aadarsh Tripathi won 7-5.

On Saturday, the Bruins continued their success in singles play against the Ducks, again winning the first three singles matches, with the other three going unfinished. The team was also victorious in two of the three doubles matches.

This was a pivotal weekend for the Bruins, as they need to maintain at least a .500 record to remain eligible for the NCAA tournament. UCLA’s success over the weekend ensured the team would retain its eligibility, and Martin said his team’s wins over the weekend could also help improve its seeding.

“You know, I think there’s a chance we could be a three seed now where we wouldn’t play the top seed at the first regional, which is a top-16-ranked team,” Martin said.

Sophomore Giacomo Revelli triumphed on both days, winning in singles play against Washington before winning in both singles and doubles against Oregon. Revelli, alongside junior doubles teammate Timothy Li, defeated No. 30 Joshua Charlton and Quinn Vandecasteele to earn UCLA’s first doubles win of Saturday.

Revelli said the team’s success over the weekend has given the squad momentum to finish out the season strong.

“We’ve definitely upped the performances and I think that we can use this upcoming (UC) San Diego match as a stepping stone to keep that match rhythm going into Utah,” Revelli said.

Li also earned a two-win day over the weekend, joining Revelli by claiming both his singles and doubles matches against Oregon. Li cruised past Oregon’s Ray Lo 6-0, 6-2, marking his third consecutive victory since claiming his first dual-singles win as a Bruin last weekend against Stanford.

Li said his team’s victories were a culmination of aggression and a constantly developing gameplay.

“I mean, we have a game plan going into it. In the past few games we had, we didn’t really execute,” Li said. “But then we started putting it together, finally made some returns, connected and stayed aggressive.”

UCLA will have a quick turnaround from this weekend’s competition, set to return to action Monday at home against UC San Diego.