UCLA
Washington
Men's Tennis Heads North to Open League Play
February 27, 2020 | Men's Tennis
The No. 14/22 UCLA men's tennis team (6-4) opens conference play with a pair of road matches, starting Friday at Washington (3 p.m., PT) and concluding Sunday at Oregon (12 p.m.). Live video and up-to-the-minute statistics from Seattle will be available HERE. Live video from the UO Student Tennis Center, will be available HERE, while live statistics will be accessible HERE. The Huskies enter this week's match with a record of 8-4. The Ducks are 9-3, with a match against top-ranked USC leading off their week.
LAST WEEK
The UCLA men's tennis team shut out UC Irvine, 4-0, in non-conference action Sunday, Feb. 23 at Los Angeles Tennis Center. Sophomore Mathew Tsolakyan earned his third win in a rowโthe day's clinching decision on Court 5โfor the Bruins (6-4). It was a big day for sophomore Govind Nanda and junior Keegan Smith, who each earned a singles victory and teamed to win the doubles point in a winner-take-all tiebreaker on the top court.
UCLA VS. WASHINGTON, OREGON
UCLA dropped just one combined point the last time it faced Washington and Oregon in the penultimate regular-season homestand of 2019. The Bruins earned the doubles point in convincing fashion before taking three of four singles matches from the Ducks for a 4-1 victory (April 12). Then-freshman Eric Hahn prevailed in straight sets to clinch the win on Court 6 and improve UCLA's overall record versus Oregon to 28-0. The next day, the Bruins registered a clean sweep of the Huskies without dropping a single set. Hahn, Nanda and Smith turned in singles wins, with Nanda posting the decider on Court 3. UCLA is 35-2 against Washington. Both of the Huskies' wins came at home, in 1998 and 2006.
IN THE RANKINGS
The Bruins dropped to No. 22 in the latest Oracle ITA team rankings, it was announced Tuesday. They remained at No. 14, meanwhile, in the Tennis Channel/USTA poll released Wednesday. The latest Oracle ITA individual rankings feature two debuts, with freshman Drew Baird checking in at No. 124 on the singles list and the doubles pair of Nanda and Smith residing at No. 24. Smith maintained his top-10 status in the singles rankings, at No. 8, while Nanda settled in at No. 28. Smith (No. 6) and Nanda (10) achieved career-high showings in the previous singles rankings. Smith spent 10 of 12 installments ranked among the top 100 singles players and top 40 doubles duos, with partner Maxime 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.
MR. 600
With the Bruins' 4-0 ITA Indoors defeat of NC State on Feb. 16, head coach Billy Martin reached the 600-win plateau for his career. MORE ON 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 601-128 (.824) 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.
BY THE NUMBERS
UCLA has three notable streaks alive:
ย ย ย ย 65 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.
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. Senor Ben Goldberg, who went 6-3, posted singles quarterfinal-round showings at the Jack Kramer Club Collegiate Invitational and the SoCal Intercollegiate Championships. Junior Bryce Pereira and redshirt junior Connor Rapp, meanwhile, teamed to win the doubles title at the Aztec Fall Invitational. The pair beat teammates Hahn and sophomore 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.
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. Cressy and Smith, 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. 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. Hahn (12 wins), Goldberg (11) and Rapp (10) bring 10 or more singles wins back into the fold. Pereira and sophomore Patrick Zahraj, who teamed to tally 12 dual-match doubles victories, are also back. Juniors Lucas Bellamy and Connor Hance, sophomores Tsolakyan, Wild and Roscoe Bellamy and redshirt freshman Blaine Hovenier 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.
Players Mentioned
