UCLA
Oracle ITA National Fall Championships
Cressy, Smith Win Final Fall Tournaments
November 05, 2017 | Men's Tennis
LOS ANGELES โ The UCLA men's tennis team concluded its fall schedule Sunday, as tournaments wrapped up on the West Coast. It proved to be a fruitful weekend for the Bruins, who saw champions crowned in Las Vegas and Rolling Hills Estates, Calif. and more success at a new Palm Desert, Calif. tournament.
Oracle ITA National Fall ChampionshipsPalm Desert, Calif. played host to some of the best collegiate players in the nation, including Bruin seniors Martin Redlicki and Logan Staggs, at the inaugural ITA National Fall Championships.
Both Redlicki (ranked No. 24 in the preseason ITA singles rankings) and Staggs (No. 75) were victorious in the opening round. The fifth-seeded Redlicki topped Alex Knight of Michigan in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, while Staggs upended Jan Zielinski of Georgia, 7-5, 6-2.
Needing a first-set tiebreak, Redlicki moved on to the Round of 16 with a 7-6 (4), 6-4 win over John McNally of Ohio State. Staggs would not have the same fortune against his Ohio State foe, however, as he fell to 10th-seeded J.J. Wolf of the Buckeyes, 6-3, 6-1, ending his run.
Another first-set tiebreak arose in Redlicki's Round of 16 match, but this one went the way of Tennessee's Timo Stodder. Redlicki would bounce back, though, taking the final two sets to advance to the quarterfinal round, 6-7 (1), 6-3, 6-1.
Fourth-seeded Skander Mansouri of Wake Forest was next up for Redlicki, who dropped the first set for the second straight match. Once again, he rebounded, evening the score after two. The third set would go to a deciding tiebreak, which Redlicki captured along with the match, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4).
FIRED UP! @uclatennis #5 Martin Redlicki outlasts @WakeMTennis #4 Skander Mansouri 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4) to reach the #ITAFallNats semifinals! pic.twitter.com/hRKiVtY27Y
โ ITA Tennis (@ITA_Tennis) November 3, 2017
Redlicki's run would ultimately come to an end in the semifinals against top-seeded Nuno Borges of Mississippi State. Borges tore through the tournament without dropping a set, defeating Redlicki by a 6-2, 6-4 score before taking down Wake Forest's Petros Chrysochos in the final, 7-5, 6-3.
Larry Easley Memorial ClassicBruins Maxime Cressy and Austin Rapp were the top two seeds in the Larry Easley Memorial Classic singles draw at the Fertitta Tennis Complex on the campus of UNLV. Joining them were Connor Rapp and Bryce Pereira. Each player earned a first-round bye.
In the second, Connor Rapp battled hard, but was dropped by San Diego State's Sander Anderson in straight sets, 7-5, 7-5. Austin Rapp needed three sets, but advanced past the Aztecs' Joel Popov, 6-2, 4-6, 6-0, while Cressy (6-2, 6-4 over Sebastian Eguez of Northern Arizona) and Pereira (6-4, 6-0 over Eric Samuelsson of UNLV) advanced in straights.
Pereira's run would end in the quarterfinals, as the freshman dropped a tough one against San Diego State's Arnaud Restifo, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. Cressy nearly blanked the Aztecs' Ignacio Martinez, 6-0, 6-1, while Austin Rapp had an easier go of it in the quarters, defeating Richard Solberg of UNLV, 6-4, 6-2.
Later that day, Cressy and Austin Rapp each dropped his opening set 6-4. Similarly, each Bruin responded with a 6-3 second-set to force a decisive third set. While Rapp would ultimately fall to Restifo, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, Cressy cruised down the stretch against UNLV's Courtney Lock, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
A determined Cressy followed one overwhelming victory over an Aztec with another, as the junior topped Restifo in the final, 6-1, 6-0, to give the Bruins their second straight champion at the Easley Memorial. Last year, Joseph Di Giulio defeated Mathieu Garcia of Portland.
In this year's doubles tournament, both Bruin doubles teams fell in the first round, as Cressy-Austin Rapp was downed by the San Diego State team of Martinez-Popov (8-6), while Pereira-Connor Rapp came out on the short end against Lock-Samuelsson of UNLV. Both teams returned to record consolation wins, though, with Cressy-Austin Rapp defeating Tim Fisher and Lucas Taylor of Northern Arizona, 8-6, and Pereira-Connor Rapp taking down Felix Schumann and Chris Steele, also of Northern Arizona, 8-1.
Jack Kramer Club Collegiate InvitationalThe annual Rolling Hills Estates, Calif. tournament featured four Bruins in its field, with Lucas Bellamy, Ben Goldberg, Connor Hance and Keegan Smith taking part in both the singles and doubles competitions.
Three of the four UCLA players reached the Round of 32 via bye, with Bellamy falling in a tightly-contested three-set opening match to Duante Harris of UC Santa Barbara. On the lower half of the bracket, though, each player worked his way into the Round of 16. Goldberg topped Henrik Altevi of UC Santa Barbara, 6-3, 6-2, while Hance defeated Washington's Piers Foley in a close one, 6-4, 6-7, 10-8 and fourth-seeded Smith dispatched Mac Rechan of Georgetown, 7-6, 6-3.
Runs would end for Goldberg and Hance there, however, as each fell to a No. 5 seed in three sets. Goldberg was dropped by Washington's Enzo Sommer, 7-6, 4-6, 6-3, while Hance met his match in Jake DeVine of USC, 6-2, 2-6, 6-1. Smith kept rolling, though, knocking off Washington's Amit Batta, 6-1, 6-1.
Smith's success would continue, as he went on to bounce both Sommer (6-2, 6-3) and DeVine (6-1, 3-6, 6-3) on his way to the final.
There he met top-seeded Stanford veteran Tom Fawcett, who had coasted into the final without dropping a set. That would end immediately, as Smith took the opening set, 6-3. Fawcett responded with a 6-3 second-set win of his own, leading to a decisive third set. There, Smith proved too much, coming away with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 victory and his first collegiate tournament championship.
Players Mentioned
