UCLA
Utah
No. 7 UCLA Plays Host to Utah, Arizona
April 12, 2017 | Men's Tennis
LOS ANGELES -- The No. 7 UCLA men's tennis team returns home to Sunset Canyon Tennis Courts this week for a Friday-Sunday set of Pac-12 matches against Utah and Arizona. The Bruins will look to extend their current six-match winning streak that has them atop the conference at 3-0.
A week that began uneventfully with a rained-out match at California was capped with an exciting finish against long-time rival Stanford. The Cardinal, ranked No. 19 at the time of the match, jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the Bruins with two doubles wins and a singles victory on Court 1. A second-set tiebreak win by Austin Rapp on Court 5, however, sparked a run that was continued by Martin Redlicki and Logan Staggs and put the Bruins into the lead.
In the end, it was Evan Zhu who completed the Bruin rally, as the freshman defeated the Cardinal's David Wilczynski on Court 3, 6-4, 7-6 (5). The tiebreaking set marked the third of the day, all of which were captured by Bruin players.
Following the win, UCLA rose three spots in the Oracle/ITA rankings to No. 7. The doubles team of Redlicki and Zhu, which did not finish its match against the Stanford duo of Tom Fawcett and Yale Goldberg, fell three spot to No. 10. In singles, Gage Brymer (No. 20) and Redlicki (No. 43) each represent the Bruins in the latest rankings.
In Utah, the Bruins will welcome a team that holds a 15-7 mark on the season. The Utes dropped their first three conference matches to ranked opponents by a combined 12-0 score, but recovered to defeat Washington, 4-2, in its latest Pac-12 contest (April 9). Slava Shainyan clinched the match on Court 4, while David Micevski and Dan Little also secured wins on the top courts.
The Bruins and Utes have squared off a total of 12 times, and UCLA has come out of each victorious. Last season, Utah played host to the matchup, which the Bruins won by a 4-0 score (April 10). In the only decision between players on this season's teams, Redlicki defeated Micevski by a score of 6-3, 6-1 on Court 2.
When the Wildcats come to town Sunday, the Bruins will encounter a team entering the week hungry for its first conference win of 2017 Arizona dropped a 4-1 decision to Oregon on its Senior Day (April 9) and will finish out the Pac-12 regular season with three road matches. Will Kneale and Oliver Plaskett both closed out their home careers at LaNelle Robson Tennis Center, as Plaskett posted the only singles win on the day for the Wildcats.
UCLA holds a 68-1 all-time mark against Arizona, which was improved upon last year in Tucson. The Bruins posted a 4-0 win (April 8), as Redlicki defeated Kneale by a 6-3, 6-3 score on Court 2 to clinch the match.
Players Mentioned
