University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Redlicki Top Seed for NCAA Singles Championships
May 04, 2018 | Men's Tennis
INDIANAPOLIS โ UCLA senior 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 Wednesday. Freshman teammate Keegan Smith is also in the field. The doubles competition will feature a pair of Bruin tandems, with Austin Rapp-Keegan Smith and Martin Redlicki-Evan Zhu both cracking the list of invitees.
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.
All matches will feature a best-of-three-sets format. Like the regular-season, no-ad scoring and a seven-point tiebreaker at six-games-all will be employed. Unlike the regular season, not only will doubles feature more than one set, but a potential third set would be decided by a 10-point match tiebreaker.
Redlicki earned one of 15 conference automatic bids as the nation's top-ranked player. After claiming the No. 1 spot at the conclusion of the fall season, the Boca Raton, Fla. native again topped the list March 20 and has remained there ever since. Redlicki has gone 17-4 versus ranked opponents on the season, most recently taking down 11th-ranked Brandon Holt of USC in straight sets to move the Bruins closer to their fourth Pac-12 tournament title in seven years.
Riding a 13-match winning streak into next week's NCAA First and Second Rounds, Smith will try his hand at the country's top players to wrap up an impressive debut campaign. The 6-7 San Diego native currently leads the Bruins with a 36-6 overall record and a 21-2 dual-match mark. Smith has not lost a set since Feb. 19. He earned an at-large selection.
The freshman also earned an at-large bid in the doubles competition, where he will be joined by veteran teammate Austin Rapp. The pair made its way into the Oracle/ITA rankings following an undefeated run through February's ITA Indoors Championships in Seattle. Rapp-Smith defeated John McNally-JJ Wolf of Ohio State, sixth-ranked Jordi Arconada-Juan Carlos Aguilar of Texas A&M and Borna Gojo-Skander Mansouri of Wake Forest over three days. Each of the three win clinched the doubles point for UCLA.
Redlicki-Zhu skyrocketed up 44 spots to No. 29 in the doubles rankings after a 3-0 trip to the Pac-12 Championships in Ojai, Calif. The pair notched a signature win versus of No. 9 Brandon Holt-Riley Smith of USC in the final, storming back from a 5-2 deficit and facing a double break point. The improbable comeback gave the Bruins momentum heading into singles play, where they put their crosstown rivals away. Redlicki-Zhu earned an at-large berth into the field as winners of five matches in a row.
