UCLA
UC Irvine
No. 4 Men's Tennis Downs UC Irivne, 4-0 in 2015 Opener
January 22, 2015 | Men's Tennis
With a new shortened format adopted by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) this year, Wednesday's match took roughly an hour and a half to complete. Among the changes implemented for the season are: doubles matches to six games instead of eight, no-ad scoring in both singles and doubles, and there are no longer warm-ups with opponents.
UCLA (1-0) didn't take long to register a pair of wins in doubles, posting victories at court Nos. 2 and 3. After Joseph Di Giulio and Karue Sell were 6-4 winners at court No. 2, Dennis Mkrtchian and Austin Rapp clinched the point with another 6-4 win at the No. 3 spot.
The Bruins jumped all over the Anteaters (2-5) in singles as well, taking first sets at all six courts. Straight-set wins by Sell (court No. 3) and Mackenzie McDonald (court No. 1) quickly put the Bruins ahead 3-0. Rapp, playing in his first collegiate dual match, would get the clinching wins for UCLA at the No. 5 spot, as his 6-4, 6-2 victory over Jonathan Hammel gave the Bruins an insurmountable 4-0 lead.
Mkrtchian (court No. 2), Di Giulio (court No. 4) and Ryoto Tachi (court No. 6) were all up a set in their respective matches when play was suspended.
UCLA returns to action this Friday, as the Bruins are hosting ITA Kick-Off Weekend at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. Texas Tech and Boise State will face off at 10:00 a.m. on Friday followed by UCLA and Pepperdine at 1:00 p.m. Friday's winners will meet on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. followed by a consolation match at 6:00 p.m. There is no cost to attend any of the ITA Kick-Off matches this weekend.
For the latest information on the UCLA men's tennis team, please visit the team's twitter account @uclatennis.
#4 UCLA 4, UC Irvine 0
Jan 21, 2015 at Los Angeles, CA (Los Angeles Tennis Center)
| Doubles |
| 1. #11 McDonald/Martin Redlicki (UCLA) vs. Hammel/Pham (UCI) 6-5, unfinished |
| 2. Di Giulio/Sell (UCLA) def. Agbayani/Jonathan Poon (UCI) 6-4 |
| 3. Mkrtchian/Rapp (UCLA) def. Mertens/Shuhei Shibahara (UCI) 6-4 |
UCLA Wins Doubles Point
| Singles |
| 1. #7 Mackenzie McDonald (UCLA) def. Nico Mertens (UCI) 6-1, 6-2 |
| 2. Dennis Mkrtchian (UCLA) vs. Sebastian Heim (UCI) 7-5, 1-0, unfinished |
| 3. Karue Sell (UCLA) def. Tyler Pham (UCI) 6-0, 6-1 |
| 4. Joseph Di Giulio (UCLA) vs. Rafael Davidian (UCI) 6-4, 2-2, unfinished |
| 5. #90 Austin Rapp (UCLA) def. Jonathan Hammel (UCI) 6-4, 6-2 |
| 6. Ryoto Tachi (UCLA) vs. Justin Agbayani (UCI) 6-1, 4-5, unfinished |
| Match Notes |
| UC Irvine 2-5 |
| UCLA 1-0; National ranking #4 |
| Order of finish: Doubles (2,3); Singles (3,1,5) |
Players Mentioned
