Irvine’s Stern Eliminates Teammate in Tennis Tournament

In a match that concluded with what he called, “probably the toughest game I played in my life,” UC Irvine sophomore Brett Stern defeated freshman teammate Fred Bach, 6-7 (7-4), 6-2, 6-4, in a third-round match of the ITCA Southern California men’s tennis championships Friday at UC Irvine.

Stern will face David Decret of UC Santa Barbara, the tournament’s top-seeded player, in a quarterfinal match at 9 a.m. today.

The final game between Stern and Bach went to deuce five times.

Bach had become a bit unglued in the previous game. A roving umpire who had just arrived on the court called a foot fault against Bach. Bach then missed his next serve, and later double faulted on the final point. Bach then shouted out in his native Norwegian. Concerned, Coach Greg Patton rushed to the court to counsel him.

“I went up to him and said, ‘Freddy, I’m not going to have you saying those things. I don’t know what you’re saying, and you could be saying something obscene,’ ” Patton said. “He said, ‘In Norwegian, we don’t have any bad words.’ ”

Jon Leach, a Laguna Beach High graduate who is now a USC sophomore, had to default his third-round match.