UCLA
Tulane
No. 5 UCLA Men's Tennis Sweeps No. 28 Tulane, 7-0
June 21, 1999 | Men's Tennis
January 23, 1999
LOS ANGELES - The UCLA men's tennis team, tied for No. 5 in the national rankings, posted its second sweep of the young season downing Tulane, who is tied for No. 28 in the rankings, today at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. With the victory UCLA improves to 2-0 on the season while this was the season opener for Tulane.
Despite the final score, the match was close from the outset as two doubles matches went to tiebreakers. UCLA's top duo of Jong-Min Lee and Jean-Noel Grinda prevailed on court No. 1 rallying to tie the match at eight all, then allowing just two points in the tie-breaker to register the 9-8 victory over Tulane's Ronald Kloppert and Robert Samuelsson and claim the doubles point for the Bruins. On court No. 3 Tulane's tandem of Jon Monk and Chris Ortner came back from a 6-7 deficit to overtake UCLA's team of Marcin Rozpedski, a junior college transfer who made his UCLA debut today, and sophomore Chris Sands, in the other tiebreaker, 9-8(6). The day started right for UCLA as the Bruins took the early lead behind an 8-4 win on court No. 2 by Jason Cook and Brandon Kramer over Tulane's Dennis Lundberg and Mikko Viljanen.
The competition remained close with two more tiebreakers on court Nos. 1-3 in singles action, while UCLA controlled the back three courts. First off the court in singles play was court No. 5 as UCLA's Lee, a junior transfer, did not drop a game en route to a 6-0, 6-0 win over Tulane's Ortner. Next off was court No. 4 as Kramer, a junior who is ranked No. 92, put the Bruins ahead 3-0 with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Viljanen. Sealing the team victory for UCLA was Sands who posted a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Monk in the No. 6 position.
On court No. 3 Cook, the Bruins only senior, claimed the first set 6-2, but had to come from behind to win the second 7-5 over Kloppert. In the top position UCLA sophomore All-American Jean-Noel Grinda rallied from down a break to win the first set in a tiebreaker, then claimed the second 6-3 for the win over Samuelsson. The longest match of the afternoon took place on court No. 2 where UCLA's No. 66 ranked freshman Zack Fleishman won the first set 6-4, and refused to be extended to three sets by coming back for a 7-6 win in the second.
UCLA continues its season opening homestand on Tuesday, Jan. 26 hosting local foe UC Irvine at 1:30 p.m. The Bruins open Pac-10 Conference action next weekend at Arizona in Tucson on Friday, Jan. 29. That match will be followed by a Noon match at Arizona State on Saturday, Jan. 30.
Here are today's position-by-position results:
Doubles - (UCLA wins point)
No. 1: Grinda/Lee (UCLA) def. Ronalpert/Samuelsson (T) 9-8(2) No. 2: Cook/Kramer (UCLA) def. Lundberg/Viljanen (T) 8-4 No. 3: Monk/Ortner (T) def. Rozpedski/Sands (UCLA) 9-8(6)Singles
No. 1: Jean-Noel Grinda (UCLA) def. Robert Samuelsson (T) 7-6(4), 6-3 No. 2: (66) Zack Fleishman (UCLA) def. Dennis Lundberg (T) 6-4, 7-6(6) No. 3: Jason Cook (UCLA) def. Ronald Kloppert (T) 6-2, 7-5 No. 4: (t92) Brandon Kramer (UCLA) def. Mikko Viljanen (T) 6-2, 6-3 No. 5: Jong-Min Lee (UCLA) def. Chris Ortner (T) 6-0, 6-0 No. 6: Chris Sands (UCLA) def. Jon Monk (T) 6-2, 6-3Final Team Score: UCLA 7, Tulane 0
