Men's Tennis Hosts Stanford, UC Irvine to Open Week
MATCH INFORMATION
Date/Time: Monday, March 22/1:00 PM PT
Tuesday, March 23/11:00 AM PT
Live Stream/Live Stats: UCLABruins.com
Series vs. Stanford: UCLA leads, 74-52
Series vs. UC Irvine: UCLA leads, 40-2
Last Meeting vs. Stanford: Stanford won 4-2 on Feb. 1, 2020
Last Meeting vs. UCI: UCLA won 4-0 on Feb. 23, 2020
The No. 23 UCLA men's tennis team returns from a short spring break Monday to face Stanford in the first of back-to-back dates against in-state foes at Los Angeles Tennis Center. The Bruins, possessors of a 5-2 overall record, are coming off a home win over Utah in their Pac-12 debut. The Cardinal (2-0, 0-0 Pac-12), which did not play its first match of the season until March 12, visits for a non-conference contest at 1 p.m., PT. UCLA is also set to host UC Irvine (4-3), which will make its way to Westwood for an 11 a.m., PT start Tuesday. The Bruins will travel to Arizona for the resumption of Pac-12 play in the back end of the week.
FOLLOW LIVE
Fans are not permitted to attend events at UCLA Athletics venues, including Los Angeles Tennis Center, in adherence to the latest COVID-19 guidelines set by the state of California and Los Angeles County. Live streaming and live scoring for all home UCLA men's tennis matches will be available HERE.
LAST TIME OUT
No. 18 UCLA bounced back from a lost doubles point and two rain delays to defeat Utah, 6-1, in the teams' Pac-12 opener March 12 at Los Angeles Tennis Center. Sam Feit clinched the victory for the Bruins. Mathew Tsolakyan, Keegan Smith and Roscoe Bellamy also contributed to UCLA's first four points with straight-set wins. Drew Baird and Ben Goldberg each prevailed in three sets to complete the singles sweep.
UCLA VS. STANFORD/UCI
UCLA men's tennis holds an all-time record of 74-52 versus Stanford. The programs last faced off Feb. 1, 2020, when the Cardinal logged a 4-2 win at Taube Family Tennis Center. The Bruins got off on the right foot, earning the doubles point in thrilling fashion. Govind Nanda would post their only win the rest of the way, however, as Stanford won two third sets to account for the difference in final score. UCLA is 40-2 against UC Irvine, most recently picking up a 4-0 defeat of the Anteaters on Feb. 23, 2020 at Los Angeles Tennis Center. Mathew Tsolakyan clinched the victory. It was a big day for Nanda and Keegan Smith, who each prevailed in singles play and teamed to capture the doubles point in a winner-take-all tiebreaker on the top court.
IN THE RANKINGS
The UCLA men's tennis team checks in at No. 23 in the latest Oracle ITA team rankings, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced Wednesday, March 17. The player rankings, announced Jan. 13, feature Bruins Keegan Smith (No. 10), Govind Nanda (22) and Sam Feit (109). The doubles team of Nanda and Smith checked in at No. 13, the best-ever ranking for the combination. Smith reached a career-best No. 4 in the singles rankings (March 3), while Nanda rose to a personal-best showing of No. 10 (Feb. 5), in 2020. Feit, who joined the program as a transfer from during the summer of 2020, also received a career-high listing.
BY THE NUMBERS
Head coach Billy Martin led his teams to 68 straight home wins from May 8, 2015 to Feb. 28, 2021, when the streak was ended by crosstown rival USC. The Bruins will try to extend a pair of conference-related runs during the 2021 regular season:
32 – UCLA teams have won 32 Pac-12 regular-season matches in a row since the start of the 2016 season.
4 – UCLA has won four straight Pac-12 regular-season championships.
TOP-TIER TRIUMPHS
Drew Baird, Ben Goldberg and Keegan Smith defeated a trio of Oracle ITA top-26 players in the Bruins' narrow home loss to USC on Feb. 28. Each win represents a career best in terms of ranking. Baird dispatched of No. 19 Riley Smith, 6-3, 6-4, for his third straight-set victory in a row. Goldberg knocked off No. 26 Mor Bulis, 7-6(5), 6-2, for his second-career win on Court 3. And in a top-court showdown, No. 10 Smith took down No. 1 Daniel Cukierman, 6-2, 7-5, evening their personal series at two wins apiece. Smith is now 24-14 versus nationally-ranked opponents for his career. Baird is 2-2 in those situations, while Goldberg holds a 5-6 mark.
SELL RETURNS TO WESTWOOD
The UCLA men's tennis program has hired former standout Karue Sell to the position of volunteer assistant coach, head coach Billy Martin announced Monday. A native of Jaragua do Sul, Brazil, Sell embarked on a professional career after posting records of 104-31 in singles matches and 90-41 in doubles play for the Bruins from 2013-16. He was an active tournament participant into 2019 before working with Naomi Osaka, the current WTA No. 2 singles player. Sell was by Osaka's side when she won her third Grand Slam singles championship at the 2020 US Open and continued to assist her as she took the top spot at the 2021 Australian Open. Sell also served as volunteer assistant coach for Pepperdine under head coach Marcelo Ferreira during the 2016-17 season.
SMITH BACK FOR MORE
Senior Keegan Smith possesses career records of 86-19 in singles play and 62-25 in doubles action. He captured the NCAA doubles championship with Maxime Cressy in 2019, the last time the tournament was played. The pair was undefeated in 21 matches and 26 sets. Smith is a three-time All-American and looks to join Brian Teacher (1973-76), Ferdi Taygan (1974-77) and Marcel Freeman (1979-82) in UCLA's exclusive club of four-timers.
NEWCOMERS
UCLA men's tennis added to the fold three newcomers in Sam Feit, Stefan Leustian and Timothy Li. Feit, a graduate transfer from Gonzaga University, spent a majority of his four seasons atop the Zags' singles and doubles lineups. He earned All-WCC Singles honors in 2018 and 2019, including a spot on the First Team as a junior, when he went 24-8. Feit also netted All-WCC First- (2019) and Second-Team (2018) Doubles accolades. Leustian, a Blue-Chip prospect as the No. 6 player in his class according to TennisRecruiting.net, won the prestigious Les Petits As tournament in Tarbes, France in 2016 as a 14-year old. A frequent participant in ITF events, he made deep runs in Boys' 18 draws at Austin, Corpus Christi, South Carolina and Delray Beach. At Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, Li and the Wolverines collected the CIF-Southern Section Division 1 team title in 2017 and 2018 and took the top spot at the CIF/USTA Southern California Regional Championships in 2018. A 4-star prospect, Li and partner Sacha Pritzker won the CIF doubles championship at the 2018 Ojai Valley Junior Tournament. The pair also claimed the Mission League doubles title that year, giving Li his second in a row.
MR. 600
With the Bruins' 4-0 ITA Indoors defeat of NC State on Feb. 16, 2020, 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 in 2019, is the longest-tenured active coach at UCLA. In his 28th year as head coach and 38th campaign on staff, Martin holds a record of 609-130 (.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 Maxime Cressy/Keegan Smith in 2019 have called Westwood home.
GLENN BASSETT
Legendary UCLA men's tennis head coach Glenn Bassett, who guided the Bruins to seven NCAA team championships as head coach, passed away August 18, 2020 at the age of 93. Bassett held a career record of 592-92-2 over 27 seasons (1967-93) as UCLA head coach. At the time of his retirement, he was the winningest men's tennis head coach, by percentage (.864), in NCAA Division I history. Bassett was also the first individual to collect NCAA tennis team championships as a player, an assistant coach and a head coach – all at UCLA. A co-captain under head coach Bill Ackerman, Bassett helped UCLA to its first-ever NCAA championship as a player in 1950. He went on to serve as assistant coach under JD Morgan and was part of five more team titles in that role. Bassett began his head coaching career at Santa Monica High School, where he guided his alma mater to five CIF Southern Section large-school crowns in a row (1962-66) before succeeding Morgan.