LA JOLLA, Calif. -- Two UCLA men's tennis doubles teams reached the semifinals of the 128th annual Pacific Coast Men's Doubles Championships Sunday to conclude three days of Bruin play and four days overall at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club. In all, four teams of eight Bruins participated in the event, which was made up of a 128-team draw.
The highest-seeded UCLA participant was the duo of Martin Redlicki and Evan Zhu, which is currently slotted at No. 24 in the ITA/Oracle doubles rankings. Seeded third in the tournament, Redlicki and Zhu earned a bye through the first round of Friday's morning matches. The duo's first match came against the San Diego State pair of Marko Goles-Babic and Milen Ianakiev, which Redlicki and Zhu dispatched in an eight-game pro set, 9-7. The Round of 32 featured another close call, but the UCLA pair defeated Bryce Bettwy and Paul E. Settles, 8-6, to advance to the Round of 16.
In its first best-of-three match of the tournament, the team of Redlicki and Zhu needed just two sets to defeat Pepperdine's Stefan Menichella and Jack Van Slyke, 6-4, 6-3, to set up a quarterfinal showdown with Keegan J. Smith and Ivan Thamma. After it dropped the opening set, the Redlicki-Zhu pair stormed back to claim victory, 1-6, 6-3, 7-5, to place itself among the top four teams in the tournament.
In the semifinals, Redlicki-Zhu encountered the top-seeded Oklahoma State pair of Lucas Gerch and Arjun Kadhe. There, the teams battled to another three-set decision, which the Cowboys ultimately secured, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, to advance to the finals.
The ninth-seeded Bruin team of Maxime Cressy and Ben Goldberg also made a run through the field, beginning with a first-round win over Brett C. Buffington and Chase Denholm, 8-3. In the Round of 64, Cressy and Goldberg made quick work of collegiate opponents Pratt Keerasuntonpong and Garrett Kurtz of San Diego, 8-2.
With a trip to the Round of 16 on the line, Cressy-Goldberg knocked off fourth-seeded John Morrissey and Nolan C. Paige, 8-3, to set up an all-Pac-12 showdown with sixth-seeded Tom Fawcett and Gregory Ouelette of Stanford. For the second week in a row, the Bruins topped the Cardinal, as Cressy-Goldberg moved to the quarterfinals with a straight-set win, 7-5, 6-4.
The final rounds saw the ninth-seeded Bruin pair take on two more Pac-12 opponents, beginning with fellow nine-seed Rob Bellamy and Jack Jaede of USC. It was anything but an easy straight-set win for Cressy-Goldberg, but the duo responded with its collective back against the wall to claim victory, 7-6 (2), 7-5. That set up a semifinal matchup with Cressy-Goldberg's second Stanford doubles opponent in as many days. This time, the Cardinal captured the win, as Jack Barber and William Genesen, another nine-seed, eliminated Cressy-Goldberg by a score of 6-4, 7-5.
In other Bruin action, Daniel Gealer and Michael Guzman defeated Matthew J. Fisher and Justin J. Steuber 8-4, before the pair dropped its Round of 64 match to eighth-seeded Peter J. Smith and Colter J. Smith, 8-6. The team of Travis Martin and Nishanth Yamani, meanwhile, dropped its only match, 8-4, to Glenn Hull and Jay Yeam of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.
The No. 11 Bruins will return to dual-match play Thursday, March 10, when they travel across town to take on their rivals, No. 10 USC. Play at Marks Stadium will begin at 3:00 p.m. UCLA previously defeated the Trojans, 4-3, in a first-round matchup at the ITA Indoor Championships in Charlottesville, Va on Feb. 17.