It’s a Losing Night in Georgia as UCLA Fails to Finish No. 1

UCLA’s men’s tennis team apparently couldn’t handle the 1-2 punch of Georgia and a roaring packed house of 5,258 Tuesday night in the NCAA championship match.

Georgia, the 10th seed in the tournament, upset UCLA, 4-3, on the Bulldogs’ home court, ending one of the Bruins’ best seasons. UCLA, the top seed in the tournament and ranked No. 1 in the country, finished 26-3.

It was the Bulldogs’ third national championship in men’s tennis and all three titles were won here against UCLA (1985, 1987 and 1999).

“It’s a very un-neutral court and the odds are stacked against you,” said UCLA Coach Billy Martin, whose team had early command of the match, winning first sets in four of the six singles matches. “But we were a point away from winning the match and we only have ourselves to blame.”

“You can only use the home court so much as an excuse.”

The match point was in No. 6 singles, where the Bruins’ Marcin Rozpedski, who had won the first set 6-2, led 5-4 in the second set and was up 40-30. The match was tied 2-2 overall, but the Bruins’ Jean-Noel Grinda was finishing off Georgia’s Hisham Hemeda at No. 1 singles, which would give the Bruins a 3-2 lead. Rozpedski would have scored the fourth, and clinching point, at No. 6.

But urged on by his fans, the Bulldogs’ Michael Lang fought off match point and came back to win the second set, 7-6, 7-4 in the tiebreaker. Lang then routed Rozpedski, 6-2, in the third set.

Rozpedski’s loss made it 3-3. That left the decisive match at No. 4 singles, where UCLA’s Jong-Min Lee and Georgia’s Joey Pitts split the first two sets on the lower courts of the complex. The crowd in the main grandstand swarmed down on the grassy banks overlooking courts 4-6 to watch the match and roar for Pitts.

Lee seemed to tighten up amid all the noise and become complacent. He was overwhelmed in the third set and lost, 6-2, and the crowd erupted in celebration. Lee, his head bowed afterward, wouldn’t comment on the match.

“This is where the crowd I think really helped a little bit,” Martin said.

UCLA had looked unbeatable for most of the tournament. The Bruins won their first three matches of the tournament and lost only two of 18 singles matches in those wins.

“I think the crowd gives the Georgia players more confidence than it actually hurts us,” said UCLA’s Zack Fleishman, a freshman from Playa del Rey. “Georgia plays so much to their crowd. They hit a great shot on the first point of the match and they’re going crazy to get their crowd into it.”

The UCLA players said the Georgia fans--which included former Bruin basketball coach Jim Harrick, now the Bulldog coach--were loudest in the doubles matches, played on the three upper courts in front of the main grandstand.

Georgia’s Hemeda and Adam Seri defeated Grinda and Lee, 8-6, in the No. 1 doubles match. Grinda and Lee were ranked sixth in the country. UCLA’s Jason Cook and Brandon Kramer, ranked No. 7 nationally, lost to the Bulldogs’ Lang and Travis Parrott, 8-6, in No. 2 doubles.

It was only the fifth time in 29 dual matches this season that the Bruins lost the doubles point. It was the first time this season that UCLA lost a match where it lost the doubles point.