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  COURTNEY STEWART/Daily B ruin Junior Rodrigo Grilli rips a forehand against Fresno State earlier this season.

By Gilbert Quiñonez

Daily Bruin Contributor

USC, the team that inspires anger in Bruin fans, will come to the Los Angeles Tennis Center to revive a great longtime rivalry. Several Grand Slam titles have been earned by players on both teams, including Arthur Ashe and Jimmy Connors from UCLA and with Stan Smith and Alex Olmedo from USC.

“It’s always a big rivalry,” Bruin head coach Billy Martin said.

“It brings out the best in both teams. You can throw the records out the door, both teams are going to play their best.”

Both teams have started out 3-0 this year, crushing their opponents, including a dominating 7-0 victory against UNLV for both teams this week.

“The goal is beating USC,” UCLA team captain Erfan Djahangiri said. “Then the goal is to win the National Indoors and the NCAA Tournament.”

“UNLV is a good warmup for the USC match,” junior Jean-Julien Rojer said. “We’re trying to focus on USC.”

Even though No. 12 USC’s players haven’t lost a singles or doubles match during match play, that doesn’t necessarily mean they have been more dominant than No. 3 UCLA, whose players have lost only two singles matches. UCLA players won several preseason tournaments that involved players from both teams. Also, sophomore Tobias Clemens, UCLA’s current No. 4 starter, beat USC’s No. 1 player, Andrew Park, twice during the preseason.

Normally, a vocal crowd shows up for both teams to these classic rivalry games.

“I hope all of our students will come and support all of our sports,” said Martin. “A home-court advantage always helps, especially against Stanford and USC. It never is a total away match against USC.”

The tennis rivalries rarely inspire hostile crowds like other sports, since both teams’ coaches have worked to make it a good, clean battle.