Texas Tech University Athletics
UCLA Knocks Off Texas Tech at NCAA Championships
May 12, 2007 | Men's Tennis
May 12, 2007
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - After a series of close matches, the No. 36 Texas Tech men's tennis team fell 4-0 today in the second round of the 2007 NCAA Tennis Championships in Los Angeles. The UCLA Bruins hold a 21-3 record and will advance to the Sweet Sixteen in Athens, Ga.
Needing the doubles to get the early jump on the Bruins, the Red Raiders knew they had a tough set of matches ahead of them. The No. 33-ranked duo of Christian Rojmar and Bojan Szumanski were the first to fall to UCLA's No. 14-ranked pair of Philipp Gruendler and Benjamin Kohlloeffel, 8-3.
In their final doubles match as Red Raiders, senior Teddy DiBlasi and Dimitrio Martinez went 2-0 on the weekend defeating UCLA's Mathieu Dehaine and Jeremy Drean, 8-6. The two finish with a 10-6 duals record this season, with DiBlasi ending with 39 doubles victories and tied for third on Tech's all-time career doubles victories list.
Tech saw a glimpse of déjà vu from the Oklahoma State match earlier this season as the doubles point once again was in the hands of the No. 2 doubles Michael Breler and Sinisa Markovic. Down 7-3, the two fought their way back to put the score at 7-5 with Markovic serving. UCLA's Haythem Abid and Chris Surapol refused to let up, walking away with the 8-5 win and putting the Bruins up 1-0 early in the match.
In singles the Raiders went up 2-1 in the first set on five courts, but couldn't quite stall the home court advantage held by the Bruins. UCLA's No. 4-ranked Kohlloeffel capitalized on Szumanski after he suffered a strained groin towards the end of the first set, winning 6-4, 6-1 at No. 1.
With the remainder of the matches neck-and-neck, UCLA moved in and finished with three singles wins. The Bruins second point came unlikely on the No. 3 court as Markovic could not find cushion to break Gruendler, dropping his fourth dual match of the season 6-4, 6-4. The final point came moments after as UCLA's Surapol edged Breler 6-3, 6-3 on court four.
"I think we gave it everything we had today," said Head Coach Tim Siegel. "UCLA has a very, very good team, and they have an definite opportunity to go far in the tournament. We really competed well and accomplished our goal to get to the tournament, and I definitely feel we gave UCLA a good match today."
The Red Raiders finish their 2007 season 14-10 overall, 2-4 and tied for fourth in the Big 12 Conference. Next up, Szumanski will represent Texas Tech in Athens, Ga., competing in the NCAA Individual Championships. For more information, visit www.texastech.com.
#36 Texas Tech, 0
#9 UCLA, 4
Los Angeles, Calif.
Doubles: 1, 3, 2*
1. Gruendler/Kohlloeffel (UCLA) def. Rojmar/Szumanski (TTU), 8-3
2. Abid/Surapol (UCLA) def. Breler/Markovic (TTU), 8-5
3. DiBlasi/Martinez (TTU) def. Dehaine/Drean (UCLA), 8-6
Singles: 3, 1, 4*
1. Benjamin Kohlloeffel (UCLA) def. Bojan Szumanski (TTU), 6-4, 6-1
2. Dimitrio Martinez (TTU) vs. Haythem Abid (UCLA), 5-7, 4-2 DNF
3. Philipp Gruendler (UCLA) def. Sinisa Markovic (TTU), 6-4, 6-4
4. Chris Surapol (UCLA) def. Michael Breler (TTU), 6-3, 6-3
5. Christian Rojmar (TTU) vs. Mathieu Dehaine (UCLA), 4-6, 4-5 DNF
6. Milos Kustudija (TTU) vs. Michael Look (UCLA), 7-5, 0-6 DNF
Players Mentioned
