By Dave Denicke
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
OJAI, Calif. – The saying goes that sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Last weekend, the UCLA men’s tennis team put that adage to the test at the Pac-10 Individual Championships.
Four Bruins competed in the main singles and doubles draws, with the best performances coming from the senior doubles team of Brandon Kramer and Jong-Min Lee, and a semifinalist showing in singles by freshman Jean-Julien Rojer.
“I think this tournament shows that we are just as good a team as Stanford,” UCLA head coach Billy Martin said. “We’re evenly matched.”
In Kramer and Lee’s first-round match against KJ Hippensteel and David Martin of Stanford, the Bruin seniors were serving up 6-5, when two consecutive close calls went against them, enabling the Cardinal to even the match with a break of serve.
The latter of the two was important, because UCLA seemingly won the point on an overhead by Kramer. But his own momentum pushed Kramer into the net, disqualifying the point. “I was running so hard I couldn’t stop. We ended up losing the point because of that, and I just went crazy,” Kramer said. “We should’ve gotten the point.”
Kramer and Lee were both fuming and their anger propelled them to an 8-6 win. “We were pissed off. Those two points did us a world of good. Suddenly everything was clicking,” Lee said.
That momentum spilled over the remainder of the tournament for the two, who devoured Oregon and Washington before facing Oregon’s Guillermo Carter and Leslie Eisinga in Sunday’s final.
In that matchup, though, the momentum from Lee and Kramer’s previous wins turned flat as Carter and Eisinga jumped out to a 5-0 lead.
UCLA took the second set 6-2, but encountered a setback in the third when Eisinga hit a drop shot winner for a break of serve, giving the Ducks an early 2-1 lead. After trading breaks of serve, Kramer placed a volley at the feet of Oregon. The winner resulted in a 6-5 lead for UCLA.
On Eisinga’s serve at 6-5, UCLA continued to be denied by Eisinga and Carter. But by the second match point, Eisinga ran out of answers. He missed a first serve, pushed a volley wide and then watched as the Bruin seniors celebrated their title.
“It got a little tight, but we were able to tighten the noose on them and come through,” Kramer said.
The victory marked Lee’s second consecutive Pac-10 doubles title, along with his 1999 triumph with Grinda.
“It’s great to put my name down on the trophy again,” Lee said.
In singles play, all four Bruins in the main draw advanced to the quarterfinals, but only Rojer proved worthy of playing on the weekend, by virtue of a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Carter of Oregon. Though the matchplay itself did not last very long, a rain delay stretched out the match over three hours.
The first of two rain delays affected three Bruin quarterfinal match-ups. The largest swing after the rain took place on court three, where Stanford’s Geoff Abrams recovered from an early deficit to defeat Jean-Noel Grinda, 7-5, 6-3.
On the lower courts, freshman Erfan Djahangiri continued his torrid play of late, sweeping through Friday and Saturday’s matches into Sunday’s final. Leading up to the match against Stanford’s Ali Ansari, Djahangiri won three matches, including wins over other Cardinals Carter Morris and David Martin. On Sunday, he scored a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Ansari, giving him three wins over Cardinal opponents in as many days.
“UCLA and Stanford are two great universities, but I wanted to show them that UCLA is better,” Djahangiri said.
As for other Bruins competing in the invitational draw, Chris Sands, Travis Rettenmaier and Lassi Ketola all reached the quarterfinals before yielding to Stanford players.
In the invitational doubles final, again it was UCLA and Stanford. It offered a chance at redemption for Ketola and Rettenmaier, who beat Stanford’s Ansari and Scott, 6-4, 7-5.
“I was disappointed after the singles, so it was good to at least get the doubles,” Ketola said.
So as the Bruins take home three titles and a share of the Thatcher Cup with Stanford, thanks to each school’s 12 match wins, UCLA hopes to parley its individual victories into the sum of one NCAA team title – to be decided later this month in Athens, Ga.