UCLA
California
Top-15 Road Matchups Next for Men's Tennis
January 30, 2020 | Men's Tennis
The No. 10 UCLA men's tennis team will take a 3-0 record on the road this week, with non-conference matches at No. 13 California and No. 11 Stanford on deck. The Bruins and Golden Bears (1-1) will meet Friday at Hellman Tennis Complex, with first serve scheduled for 1:30 p.m., PT. Live videoย and scoringย will be available HERE. The latest chapter in the UCLA-Stanford rivalry is scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m. Live scoring and video from the Taube Family Tennis Center will be available HERE. The Cardinal is 3-0 after beating Cal in ITA Kickoff Weekend action.
LAST WEEK
Hosting San Diego, San Diego State and UCF for ITA Kickoff Weekend matches, UCLA earned a spot in next month's ITA National Team Indoor Championships by virtue of a pair of wins. The Bruins defeated San Diego State by a score of 4-1 on Saturday, as junior Keegan Smith clinched the victory on the top court. Sophomore Govind Nanda and junior Connor Hance also posted singles wins, while Nanda/Smith teamed to clinch the doubles point. Then, facing deuce point on Sunday, senior Ben Goldberg came out on top of a 25-shot rally and sealed UCLA's 4-3 defeat of UCF. Goldberg beat No. 108 Bogdan Pavel, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 to clinch the Bruins' trip to Madison, Wis. They got their other singles victories from Nanda and sophomore Patrick Zahraj. Zahraj also teamed with junior Bryce Pereira to run off seven tiebreaker points in a row and capture a winner-take-all doubles result.
UCLA VS. CAL, STANFORD
UCLA turned in a pair of 4-2 wins against Cal during the 2019 regular season, but dropped a 4-1 decision in the semifinal round of the Pac-12 Championships. A 7-4 winner-take-all, tiebreaking decision on Court 3 went the way of Golden Bears Ben Draper Jack Molloy, who beat Pereira/Zahraj. Zahraj would post the lone Bruin win of the day, as he beat Draper, 6-2, 6-3, on Court 4. The loss by top-seeded UCLA dropped its overall record versus Cal to 97-14. A rainout on Feb. 9 meant the Bruins and Cardinal met just once in 2019. In a Pac-12 road match on March 29, No. 19 UCLA improved to 2-0 in conference play and snapped No. 10 Stanford's seven-match winning streak in a 4-2 result. Maxime Cressy delivered the clinching point on Court 1 for the Bruins and teamed with Smith to claim the doubles point with a tiebreaking victory on the top court. Smith also went on to record a singles victory. Goldberg added the third UCLA singles win. The win improved UCLA's all-time record versus Stanford to 74-51.
FALL RECAP
Smith represented the Bruins at three national events during the fall, earning a team-high seven singles wins along the way. Three of his victories came versus ranked opponents. His finest performance came in the season-opening Oracle ITA Masters tournament, where he reached the final round before dropping a three-set decision. Senior Goldberg, who went 6-3, posted singles quarterfinal-round showings at the Jack Kramer Club Collegiate Invitational and the SoCal Intercollegiate Championships. Pereira and redshirt junior Connor Rapp, meanwhile, teamed to win the doubles title at the Aztec Fall Invitational. The pair beat teammates Eric Hahn and Max Wild in the final round. Rapp finished the fall with a 9-3 doubles record, while Wild went 8-5. Pereira registered a 5-2 mark.
IN THE RANKINGS
The Bruins maintained their grasp on the No. 10 spot in the Oracle ITA team rankings, it was announced Wednesday. The season's first installment of the Tennis Channel/USTA Top 25 was also released Wednesday, with UCLA ranked ninth. Individually, Smith will start the new year ranked a career-best No. 7 on the singles list. He spent 10 of 12 installments ranked among the top 100 singles players and top 40 doubles duos, with partner Cressy, in 2019. Smith and Cressy finished the season atop the doubles rankings. As a team, the Bruins completed the 2019 campaign slotted at No. 11.
2018-19 IN REVIEW
Behind a lineup comprised predominantly of freshmen and sophomores, the Bruins went undefeated in Pac-12 play to secure their fourth regular-season conference championship in a row. The team won 13 consecutive contests from Feb. 26-April 25, highlighted by a 4-3 victory against crosstown rival USC at Los Angeles Tennis Center. Smith and senior Cressy, who were stellar on the singles courts, achieved perfection in doubles play. The pair went 21-0, completing its run with the program's 14th NCAA doubles championship and third in four years. The All-Americans also earned UCLA's fourth-straight Pac-12 Doubles Team of the Year award and were selected to the All-Pac-12 First Team. Billy Martin, meanwhile, became the program's all-time leader in head-coaching wins with No. 593.
WHO'S BACK?
The Bruins return 13 players and 88 percent of their singles wins from the 2018-19 roster. In addition to his doubles success, Smith posted a 24-6 singles mark during his sophomore season. The ITA Southwest Region Player to Watch earned all 15 of his dual-match victories, versus just two losses, at the No. 2 spot. Nanda will look to top his All-Pac-12 Second Team selection, earned in large part due to his 20 singles wins. Sophomore Eric Hahn (12 wins), senior Goldberg (11) and redshirt junior Connor Rapp (10) bring 10 or more singles wins back into the fold. Junior Pereira and sophomore Zahraj, who teamed to tally 12 dual-match doubles victories, are also back. Juniors Hance and Lucas Bellamy and sophomores Roscoe Bellamy, Mathew Tsolakyan and Max Wild round out the list of returners.
WHO'S GONE?
NCAA doubles champion Cressy also occupied the top singles spot on 2019, going 15-3 in dual matches. Six of those wins came against nationally-ranked foes. He was named the ITA Southwest Region Senior Player of the Year.
WHO'S NEW?
Blue-Chip recruit Baird, ranked as high as No. 3 in his class by TennisRecruiting.net, brings a wealth of experience in prestigious junior tournaments to the Bruins. In 2018, the Raleigh, N.C. native participated in each of the four Grand Slam junior tournaments. His best singles showing was at the Australian Open, where he reached the round of 16. Baird also notched doubles quarterfinal-round trips at the US Open junior, Orange Bowl, Eddie Herr and Easter Bowl events. He also represented the United States at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
BY THE NUMBERS
UCLA has three notable streaks alive:
ย ย ย ย 64 โ Martin has led his teams to 64 straight home wins, a streak that started May 8, 2015.
ย ย ย ย 29 โ UCLA teams have won 29 Pac-12 regular-season matches in a row since the start of the 2016 season.
ย ย ย ย 4 โ UCLA has won four straight Pac-12 regular-season championships.
HEAD COACH BILLY MARTIN
Martin, who became the program's all-time leader in head-coaching wins last year, is the longest-tenured active coach at UCLA. In his 27th year as head coach and 37th on staff, Martin holds a record of 598-124 (.828) at the helm. He guided the 2005 Bruins to the program's 16th NCAA team title and just three Martin-led squads have finished outside the top five at the season-ending NCAA Championships. Benjamin Kohlloeffel (2006), Marcos Giron (2014) and Mackenzie McDonald (2016) have earned NCAA singles titles on Martin's watch, while UCLA has become a frequent landing spot for doubles champions of late. In addition to 1996 winners Justin Gimelstob and Srdjan Muskatirovic, three of the last four titleholders (McDonald/Martin Redlicki in 2016, Redlicki/Evan Zhu in 2018 and Cressy/Smith in 2019 have called Westwood home.
Players Mentioned
