No. 1 Bruins Show No Signs of Rust

UCLA men’s tennis Coach Billy Martin conceded he had questions about how his top-ranked team would respond Friday against No. 4 Stanford after a layoff of more than two weeks.

It didn’t take long for him to get an answer.

After the Bruins’ No. 3 doubles team of Marcin Rozpedski and Chris Sands overcame a three-game, two-break deficit to win, 9-7, and earn the doubles point, Jean-Noel Grinda swept No. 3-ranked Ryan Wolters in No. 1 singles and the Bruins won, 5-2, at the L.A. Tennis Center.

For UCLA, 17-1 overall and 3-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference, the victory avenged three losses at the hands of the Cardinal (11-2, 5-1) last season.

“It’s a great win any time you beat Stanford,” Martin said. “I’m tickled to death. But our goal is to be the top team at the end of the year.

“This shows our guys they can compete and beat Stanford.”

For Noel-Grinda, who came to the United States from France, the victory was bigger than a simple steppingstone.

“This is great, especially because we haven’t played in almost three weeks,” the sixth-ranked Grinda said. “When I came [to UCLA], I didn’t know much about college tennis. But last year I learned Stanford is the team.”

Grinda defeated Wolters easily in the first set, 6-2, but struggled a bit in winning the second, 7-6 (9-7).

“I was tentative in the end of the second set,” said Grinda, whose shoulder problems caused him to go without practice for 10 days during the break. “After the long layoff, I had trouble closing out the match.”

The biggest momentum boost came from Rozpedski and Sands. The top two doubles teams for UCLA and Stanford had split, and after being down, 6-3, the Bruin pair won six of the final seven games, with Sands putting away the winner.

“That was huge,” Grinda said. “It’s only one point, but it’s so much more than that. That set the pace for us.”

Also winning singles matches for UCLA were Jason Cook, Jong-Min Lee and Brandon Kramer.