By sweeping both Fresno State and Alabama in the ITA Indoor Qualifying Tournament this weekend, the UCLA men’s tennis team earned a ticket to Virginia to compete in the USTA/ITA National Team Indoors in February.

“We are very excited about that,” coach Billy Martin said. “It is the only time besides the NCAAs where we get to be with all the top teams in the country.”

UCLA defeated Alabama 4-0 on Saturday and Fresno State 4-0 on Sunday, winning the tournament and punching the team’s ticket to Virginia.

The team was able to claim the doubles point against the Bulldogs, but it came down to the wire.
Redshirt senior Nick Meister and sophomore Adrien Puget were able to defeat Remi Boutillier and Francis Alcantara of Fresno State 8-6. But junior Warren Hardie and freshman Dennis Mkrtchian lost to Jean-Charles Diame and Sai Kartik Nakireddi 8-6.

Redshirt junior Alex Brigham and freshman Marcos Giron were up early against David Ayoun and Zachary Leslie, but ended up losing the lead. The Bruins were able to survive two match points to tie the game at 8-8 and send it into a tiebreaker, which they won 8-6.

“We definitely had some opportunities that we messed up on,” Giron said. “I’m really happy we came up with the doubles point, because that’s really important. … It really puts a lot more pressure on the other team to do well in singles.”

In singles, Mkrtchian was able to overpower Ayoun 6-4, 6-1 to claim the second point of the day for the Bruins.

“Doubles was disappointing. We could have played better, but I forgot about it and just stayed focused,” Mkrtchian said. “I want to help the team out as much as I can, so I had to regroup and just play well (in singles). Which I did.”

To gain the final two points of the day to finish off Fresno State, Giron defeated Diame 6-4, 6-4 and junior Maxime Tabatruong beat Leslie 6-4, 6-2.

“I started going to the net a lot more and it really helped,” Giron said. “I felt I played pretty smart against him.”

Against Alabama on Saturday, the doubles tandems of Brigham and Giron and Hardie and Mkrtchian were to overcome slow starts to defeat Jarryd Botha and David Vierya 8-5 and Daniil Proskura and Carlos Taborga 8-4, respectively.

“They really did shock my guys (at first),” Martin said. “We got used to the pace and didn’t panic and got back into it. Sometimes it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”

Puget swept his singles opponent, Michael Thompson, 6-0, 6-0, Mkrtchian overwhelmed Proskura to win 6-1, 6-1, and Meister defeated Botha 6-3, 6-4 to send the Bruins to the finals against Fresno State.

“I was serving pretty well today and I’m getting confidence every time I play here in singles,” Puget said. “I’m moving better (and) my game is pretty good.”

With this very important victory in hand, the Bruins now get to look forward to their first road games of the season with games on back-to-back days over the weekend at UC Berkeley and Stanford.