UCLA
Michigan
UCLA Meets Michigan in Round of 16
May 15, 2018 | Men's Tennis
ON SERVE
The second-seeded UCLA Bruins are off to the NCAA Men's Tennis Championships Round of 16 for the 42nd consecutive year. The streak spans the existence of the team-tournament format. UCLA has won 16 NCAA titles, with the first coming in 1950 and the most recent in 2005. The Bruins continue their hunt for No. 17 versus 15th-seeded Michigan (22-5, 8-2), which, like UCLA, enters the Round of 16 having notched a pair of 4-0 victories to advance. Wake Forest plays host to this year's final four rounds at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex, opened in 2011. For more information, visit the Tournament Central page at wakeforestsports.com/ncaatennis.
UCLA VS. MICHIGAN
UCLA and Michigan have faced off eight times in the history of the programs. The Bruins have won each of the meetings. Friday's match will mark the first between the two sides since 1989, when UCLA registered an 8-1 victory.
LAST WEEK
Host UCLA posted a pair of 4-0 wins to move through the NCAA Championships First and Second Rounds (May 12-13). In their opener versus Idaho, the Bruins secured the doubles point with little pushback before running off three straight-set singles wins without dropping more than two games in a set. Keegan Smith posted the clinching win, 6-2, 6-2 on court three. A day later, courts two and three carried UCLA to the doubles point before the odd-numbered courts delivered straight-set singles triumphs. Maxime Cressy notched the deciding victory, 6-3, 6-3 on court five.
ALSO IN WINSTON-SALEM...
Martin Redlicki has been named the top seed in the upcoming NCAA Division I Men's Tennis singles championships, the NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Subcommittee announced May 4. Freshman teammate Smith is also in the field. Redlicki earned the Pac-12's automatic bid, while Smith picked up an at-large spot. The doubles competition will feature a pair of Bruin tandems, with Austin Rapp-Smith and Redlicki-Evan Zhu both cracking the list of invitees with at-large nods. The singles and doubles championships will take place May 23-28 at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex in Winston-Salem, N.C. Upon completion of the team competition, the top 64 singles players and top 32 doubles duos will take the courts in a tournament setting to determine the nation's best in each type of match.
PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS RECAP
The top-seeded Bruins captured three victories in three days at the Pac-12 Championships in Ojai, Calif., outscoring its opponents at a 12-1 clip. UCLA registered identical 4-0 wins over Arizona (April 26) and Oregon (April 27) in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, setting up a final-round showdown with crosstown rival and No. 3 seed USC. The doubles duo of Martin Redlicki-Evan Zhu set the tone for the Bruins in the championship match, rebounding from a 5-2 deficit and double break point to defeat No. 9 Brandon Holt-Riley Smith and take the doubles point. Martin Redlicki, Maxime Cressy and Connor Hance all turned in straight-set victories in singles play, with freshman Hance accounting for the clincher. The tournament championship marked the Bruins' fourth in its seven years of existence. They previously won the conference's regular-season title to earn the tournament's top seed.
REDLICKI'S REMARKABLE RUN
Redlicki was named the Pac-12 Men's Tennis Scholar-Athlete of the Year for 2018, the conference announced April 24. In place to recognize accomplishments on and off the field of play, the award is representative of the sport's most outstanding senior student-athlete. Redlicki has been a force on the court and in the classroom, recently picking up his 100th career singles victory while holding a cumulative 3.61 grade-point average (GPA). Currently the No. 1 singles player according to Oracle/ITA, the Boca Raton, Fla. native is in line for the third Pac-12 All-Academic honor and fourth ITA Scholar-Athlete selection of his career. Redlicki is also a three-time All-Pac-12 performer and was named the ITA Rookie of the Year as a freshman in 2015. The political science and communications double major has also been one of the nation's best on the doubles courts, capturing the NCAA Doubles Championship with Mackenzie McDonald in 2016. He has twice been one half of the Pac-12 Doubles Team of the Year, joining McDonald in 2016 and Evan Zhu in 2017. Redlicki is also looking to become just the fourth four-time All-American in program history (since 1957). He currently holds career records of 108-30 (singles) and 85-28 (doubles). Redlicki is the fifth Bruin to capture the award since it was established in 2007-08, joining Mathieu Dehaine (2008), Michael Look (2009), Clay Thompson (2014) and Dennis Mkrtchian (2015).
TERRIFIC TRIO
When Maxime Cressy was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week for matches played April 9-15, the honor marked the third of Cressy's junior campaign and sixth of 2018 for the Bruins. It also represented Cressy's second in a row, making the Hermosa Beach, Calif. native just the fourth student-athlete to accomplish that feat. No other Pac-12 team garnered more than three total awards this year. In addition to Cressy's three awards (March 6, April 10, April 17), Zhu claimed two (Jan. 30, April 3) and Smith the final one (Feb. 20). Cressy, Smith and Zhu went a combined 19-0 in regular-season conference play.
HOME COOKING
UCLA won all 16 of its matches at LATC in 2018, outscoring opponents by a 82-8 margin. The Bruins tallied 12 sweeps in those matches and never surrendered more than two points. The perfect record continued a run of recent home success for the Bruins, who have captured 45 consecutive on-campus matches dating back to the 2014-15 season. Including a pair of NCAA Championships triumphs, UCLA went 16-0 at Sunset Canyon Tennis Courts as construction moved them out of LATC. The Bruins also held an unblemished home mark in 2016, as they won all 11 of their matches at LATC.
BRUINS IMPRESS AT ITA INDOORS
Seventh-seeded UCLA became the lowest-seeded team to advance to an ITA Team Indoor Championships final under the current seeding system in Seattle (Feb. 16-19) . After dispatching 10-seed Illinois in the first round, 4-2, the Bruins pulled off improbable upsets of second-seeded Ohio State, 4-1, and sixth-seeded Texas A&M, 4-2. The Bruin journey would come to a close in the title match, where UCLA fell to No. 1 Wake Forest, 4-2, despite winning the doubles point. The Bruins did not once drop the doubles point during their four matches, with their court 2 team of Austin Rapp and Keegan Smith shining the brightest. The senior-freshman duo went 3-0 on the tournament, clinching the doubles point on each occasion. The Austin Rapp-Smith team was rewarded for its performance, as it earned All-Tournament Team recognition. Smith also went on to earn the first Pac-12 Player of the Week honor of his career on Feb. 20.
FALL BALL
A number of Bruins put on championship performances throughout the fall. Austin Rapp did double duty at the San Diego State Fall Invitational (Oct. 6-8), claiming the Flight 1 championships for both singles and doubles (with Goldberg). Smith took the top spot at the Jack Kramer Collegiate Tournament (Nov. 2-5), edging out then-No. 8 Tom Fawcett of Stanford for the singles crown. The Larry Easley Memorial Classic (Nov. 3-5) singles title went to Cressy, who also picked up the consolation championship at the Sherwood Collegiate Cup (Jan. 12-15).
PROFESSIONAL BRUINS
Mackenzie McDonald registered his second ATP Challenger Tour victory May 6, when the 2016 NCAA singles champion rebounded to defeat Jordan Thompson, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, at the Seoul Open Challenger. Dennis Novikov, meanwhile, picked up a 6-4, 6-3 win over Christian Garin at the $50,000 Morelos Challenger, which spanned from Feb. 19-25. It marked Novikov's third Challenger title. McDonald nearly shocked the professional tennis world Jan. 17 in second-round play at the Australian Open. The Piedmont, Calif. native, who turned professional after the 2016 season, fought third-seeded Grigor Dimitrov to five sets before falling, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 0-6, 8-6. McDonald won four qualifying matches in order to reach the main draw, where he posted a first-round victory over Elias Ymer, 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1. In other recent Grand-Slam action, Jean-Julien Rojer (2000-02), joined Horia Tecau to take the men's doubles title at the US Open in September. The duo defeated the Spanish pair of Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez, 6-4, 6-3.
HEAD COACH BILLY MARTIN
Head coach Billy Martin is in his 25th season as head coach of the Bruins, and 35th on the staff. During his tenure, Martin's teams have accumulated 14 conference championships and the 2005 NCAA title. Just two of Martin's teams have finished outside of the top five teams at the season-ending NCAA Championships. They have also not finished outside of the top three teams in the Pac-12 standings. He has earned Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors four times (1996, 2012-14) and the ITA National Coach of the Year award once (1996). Martin has also led three players (Benjamin Kohlloeffel in 2006, Marcos Giron in 2014 and Mackenzie McDonald in 2016) to the NCAA Singles Championship and two teams (J. Gimelstob/S. Muskatirovic in 1996 and M. McDonald/M. Redlicki in 2016) to the NCAA Doubles crown. An ITA Tennis Hall of Famer, Martin was named the "Junior Player of the Century" by Inside Tennis Magazine. Before turning pro, he played one season at UCLA (1975), during which the Bruins captured an NCAA team championship. He also won the NCAA Singles Championship. Martin holds an overall record of 573-119 (.828) overall and a 156-27 (.852) mark in Pac-12 play.
Players Mentioned
