The UCLA men’s tennis team, ranked 10th nationally, secured a 4-0 win over New Mexico in the opening round of the ITA Kickoff Weekend on Friday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. With this victory, UCLA advances to Saturday’s championship match where they will face UC Santa Barbara for a spot in the upcoming ITA National Team Indoor Championship.
Cassius Chinlund clinched his second consecutive match for UCLA by posting the third straight-set singles victory of the day. Spencer Johnson and Bengt Reinhard also earned singles wins following UCLA’s success in doubles play.
Doubles matches saw No. 47 Rudy Quan and Aadarsh Tripathi secure the point on Court 2 after No. 19 Spencer Johnson and Emon van Loben Sels notched an opening win on Court 1. Both pairs finished with identical 6-3 scores.
In singles, Reinhard made his dual debut with a dominant performance against Carl Labitzke, winning 6-1, 6-1 on Court 6. Johnson maintained his perfect dual record by defeating Jakub Prachar 6-3, 6-1 on Court 2. Chinlund closed out the match with a 6-3, 6-2 result against Tyler Waddock on Court 5.
UCLA will meet UCSB at 1 p.m. PT Saturday for a chance to advance to next month’s national indoor event. In other results from Friday, UCSB defeated Pacific by a score of 4-0.
